Intertwined
by angelanharvey3
Summary: SEQUEL to Personality! Edward is adjusting to life back with Bella & has become very attached to his mate's alternates, 17yr old Marie & 5yr old Isabella. But what happens when two more get thrown into the mix? How will he cope then? AU/OOC/DARK/SPANKS :::TEMP HIATUS:::
1. What's In A Name?

A/N:

Okay, it's a short one, but it's an introduction chappy, so cut me a little slack, kids. No one in their right mind pulls a 15-grander with an introduction chap! Plus, you guys know I'm not feeling well, and I wanted the sequel to be posted before the holiday weekend, and I don't know if I could write anymore vital details between now and then, since I only seem to be getting worse, not better. I hope I feel better by the weekend, though ~ I wanna go to the lake!

Anyways, back to story time, kids!

~ ENJOY ~

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EPOV

I sat back on my heels and stared at my mate, dumbfounded. I slowly loosened my grip on her wrist and let my hand fall slack in my lap.

"What's your name?" I asked softly. Hesitantly.

She gave me a small smile and subtly shrugged, then held Isabella's doll out to me in offering. "Wanna play with me?" she repeated.

_And I thought Isabella's voice was soft._

This voice was barely there…just a whisper with a faint, high-pitched undertone that let me know she actually _had _a voice. It was _almost _the exact replica of my Isabella's voice, but softer, if that makes any sense.

I nodded in response to her request and gently took the doll from her hands. She beamed up at me, glad that I was going to play with her apparently, then reached for Isabella's stuffed bear.

_Isabella._

Would she care that this…um, 'other person', was playing with her toys?

_Only one way to find out._

I noticed then, that my mate was very curiously looking at my posture with a puzzled look on her face. She turned to face me and went up on her knees, then sat back on her heels, mirroring my position with the soft toy in her lap.

There was a small smile on her face as she gazed into my gold eyes with her chocolate ones. I felt encouraged by her adorable expression and mirrored her small smile with my own, trying to ignore the ridiculous nervous feeling that had begun plaguing my mind.

This is my mate.

No matter _who _she is at the moment, she is mine and I should always feel comfortable in her presence.

_Damn it._

I took a deep breath then, pulling her scent deep into my lungs and effectively relaxing my body. My eyes quickly scanned her small form, trying to detect any unique, yet subtle differences that would let me know she is someone different than Marie or Isabella. I found none, though, and I don't know why I expected to. This new alternate had been aware all of five minutes - of course she wouldn't have displayed any unique traits of her own yet.

I realized then, that I was becoming impatient in wanting to know this person.

_Very _impatient.

I wanted to know _everything _about her. What's her name? How old is she? How long has she been around? What kinds of things does she like? Does she know who I am?

_Whoa, slow down, Cullen…_

Right.

I definitely had to keep my overbearing, impatient ways in check and take this slow.

Step by step…baby steps.

Just like I had done with my other girls.

So after I pulled in another lungful of her intoxicating scent, I gave her a small, reassuring smile and settled on just asking, "What do you want to play?"

She subtly shrugged again, keeping up that same penetrating stare. "Um…" her whisper trailed off before her little hands began absently stroking the fur on the stuffed bear's belly.

When she cocked her head to the side a bit and gave me another little shrug, I came to the conclusion that she was either very shy, or very quiet. Or both. So I decided that I would have to be the instigator of this conversation and asked, "How old are you?"

She proudly held up two fingers and my eyes widened in shock before I could stop them.

_She's two… Wait, _s_he's __**two**__?_

I was brought out of my surprised reverie by her soft little giggle. "Two," she told me, confirming my thoughts.

I subtly nodded, letting her know that I had heard her, but couldn't quite find my voice at the moment.

I could barely keep up with what Isabella required of me and all the juvenile things that she wanted to do - how was I going to handle a two year old?

_Oh god, please tell me she's potty trained._

She reached for the doll in my lap then, and turned her body slightly to the side so that she could put the toy back in the plastic basinet. "Isabella says no…" she said then.

I furrowed my brow, just now noticing her slight lisp when she said Isabella's name. "Um, what?"

She turned back to face me and I was surprised to see that her beautiful eyes were glistening with unshed tears. I studied the sad look on her face as she sniffled and fisted the hem of her jeans shorts in her right hand. "Can't play with her toys," she said despondently, clarifying her previous statement for me before she slowly leaned forward and put the stuffed bear back in the basinet.

She sat back on her heels when she was done, still wanting to mirror my position apparently, but kept her sad gaze focused longingly on the toys in front of her.

_Aw._

I was surprised at the slight anger I felt towards Isabella then. Why couldn't she just share her fucking toys? Only for a little while, until I could go to the store and get some more.

I smelt the salt in her tears and watched as a tiny wet drop slid down her soft rosy cheek. When she gave another little sniffle, I said 'fuck it' and lost my already weak resolve to take things slow.

"C'mere, sweetheart…" I said, reaching for her and not caring in the least that we weren't properly acquainted yet.

Two years old or not, she is my mate. I love her. And I can't stand the sight of her tears.

A very small cry escaped her lips as I positioned her to sit sideways on my lap. She kept her intent focus trained on Isabella's toys as she laid her head down on my shoulder.

I kissed the hair at the top of her head and lightly caressed her back, rocking her a bit. "Don't cry…" I pleaded.

"I wanna play with the teddy…" her small voice whimpered.

I nodded in understanding. "I can get you a teddy that's all your own," I placated in a soft voice. "Would you like that?"

I felt her subtle nod against my shoulder as a little whispered "yes" fell from her lips.

Nine seconds later, the room fell silent again. My mate's tears had stopped, and I was glad for that, but I was also a bit frustrated because I still didn't know anything about this new little alternate, besides the fact that she's two years old, has a slight lisp, and wants a teddy, apparently.

I kept her cradled to my chest and never stopped my trailing fingertips as I sat on the floor and tried to figure out what I was supposed to do next. I decided that I needed to know what to call her, so after I placed a soft kiss to the silky hair on her temple, I repeated my earlier question. "What's your name?"

She shrugged again and whispered, "Wha's yours?"

"Edward," I murmured close to her ear.

"Ed-ward," she repeated, trying it out.

I nodded and hummed, "Mm-hmm…very good."

She just silently nodded in acknowledgement of her small accomplishment in pronounding my name.

"Why don't you know your name?"

"Don't have one…" her whisper informed me.

I furrowed my brow in confusion.

_How could she not have a name?_

Isabella and Marie had both come to me, already named. The only thing this personality appears to know about herself is her age.

_How odd._

She stuck her thumb in her mouth then, but I ignored it, not exactly sure yet if I would let it slide with my new two year old, or not. I didn't want her doing it _at all_, but I had to keep her age in mind. Isn't it common for two year olds to suck their thumbs?

I knew Isabella wouldn't give a damn about ages, though. She'd see this as me not being fair. If I let this particular personality have her thumb, then I'd have to let Isabella have it, as well…outside of bedtime.

_Ugh, things just got __**really **__fucking complicated._

How do I stay fair to my little girl while taking this new baby's needs into consideration?

Carlisle came into the room then, eyes light and mind bright with excitement at hearing the last five minutes of conversation between me and my mate's new arrival. He had successfully come to the right conclusion; there's another one.

And he couldn't wait to meet her.

He slowly walked over and sat down beside us, his thoughts unsure of this new alternate's potential demeanor. She watched his movements curiously while her thumb remained contently placed in her mouth.

It was clear that this alternate was a child, and he knew from experience with Isabella, my mate's first child alternate, that she had been wary and scared of him at first, so he chose to remain cautious in his approach with her new one.

"Hello," he greeted, his bedside manner voice in place.

Her pink lips curled upward around her thumb as she unclenched her fist from the hem of her jean shorts and gave him a little wave in response.

"How old are you, dear?"

_Wow, he doesn't waste any time._

His thoughts informed then, that no…he _wasn't _wasting any time. He wanted to know, almost as badly as I did, why this new alternate didn't have a name.

She held up two small fingers for him to see before she let her hand fall back down to her lap.

He nodded. "And, what's your name?"

She shrugged again.

He sighed and whispered in our frequency, "Edward, I think she's brand new."

I furrowed my brow, not exactly sure what he meant by that statement.

Of course she's brand new; this is the first time she's ever come around. I would have known if she had made an appearance before. I'm around my mate all the time. I never leave her side, not if I can help it.

He subtly nodded at my little girl and gave her a small, reassuring smile. "Would you like one?" he asked then.

Her thumb immediately popped out of her mouth and she smiled brightly up at him, then silently nodded.

He smiled back, very happy with her responsiveness, quiet or not. She didn't appear to be skittish, or hostile, or even scared…much like my other little girl.

"What would you like to be called, sweetie?"

She simply shrugged at him again, then turned her attention back to me. "Edward, wha's my name?" she asked in that same softly whispered voice I was quickly beginning to familiarize myself with.

My eyes widened a bit in response, and now it was my turn to shrug. "Um…" was all I could come up with. I was at a loss.

_**I'm **__supposed to name her?_

She was still staring at me thirteen seconds later when I still hadn't given her an answer.

I smiled at my brand new baby girl and suggested, "How about you let me think about it, okay? You can help me think of a really pretty one…"

She smiled back, placated by my answer, and nodded.

"Do you know who Jim is?" Carlisle asked then.

I barely suppressed a growl as I shot my Sire a sudden murderous, scathing glare.

Why does he always have to bring that therapy bullshit up? First time Marie comes around, he asks why she exists. First time Isabella comes around, he shows her those pictures and asks why Charlie is a 'bad man'. Now, this new baby shows up, and he asks her about that asshole, Jim. I don't care if he's her doctor - can't he just give it a fucking break every once in a while?

I noticed his eager thoughts were remaining apprehensive, though, so he was very well aware of the fact that his question could incite a negative reaction from her.

_Why ask it then?_

I was brought out of my silent ramblings by the delicate shake of a little head. "No…" she answered softly.

He nodded in response and I sighed in relief. I guess it would make sense that she knew nothing of Jim since he didn't enter my Bella's life until she was five years old. Marie's statement the second night she was here came unbidden in my mind then…"_Those are Isabella's memories, not mine_".

Yes. Isabella is the abused, tortured one. Marie is the insecure, abandoned one.

_Hmmm…what is this one?_

My girl raised herself up out of my lap then.

I furrowed my brow as she stood before me. "Where are you going?" I asked, making sure to keep my voice soft.

"Potty," she answered, then turned and walked the five feet to the brightly lit bathroom.

_Guess she's potty trained, after all._

When she didn't shut the door behind her, I called out the reminder, "Don't forget to close the door, baby."

"Kay," she muttered in response, turning back around to shut the door with a soft _click_.

"Edward…" Carlisle called out then, trying to turn my attention away from the closed bathroom door.

_My new baby is in there…__**my **__new baby._

With one last glance, I reluctantly turned my head and tried to focus on Carlisle and what he was trying to tell me.

I gave him a questioning look. "What?"

He nodded, glad that I was paying attention to him now. "Son, Charlie is gone now, as I'm sure you already know. I made sure he knew that Bella's alternate, Marie, acted out of self-defense in that alleyway. I also informed him of her history with violence and that she has killed before, but that it was _also _in self-defense. He seemed to notice a pattern with Marie's extreme protectiveness of Bella and 'the body'. He is going to work on it from his end, so hopefully this doesn't come back to bite Bella in the ass. We may have to move, though…just until things cool down…" he trailed off suggestively.

I nodded in agreement. "Yes, if we need to, we'll move. I'm not going to have these pathetic humans coming after my girl whether she did it in self-defense, or not. My Bella is _not _going to be incarcerated. She is staying with me, goddamn it. I'll fucking hide her if I have to. I _will _take care of my mate," I stated with conviction. There may have been some growl in it, too.

Carlisle raised his brow slightly, his thoughts beseeching me to calm down. I nodded silently, paying attention to the sweet scent saturating the air in my bedroom and the sounds coming from the other side of that bathroom door in an effort to calm myself.

_My new baby is in there…_

Carlisle's voice started to fade back in, eventually winning out over the sounds of soft fabric sliding over my mate's smooth skin with ease. "…and I can almost guarantee you that this new alternate popped up in response to his trip down memory lane earlier. Bella may not consciously remember what happened to her when as a toddler, but her _mind _remembers," he informed me.

I looked down at my lap and nodded, coming to that conclusion as well. I knew just as much about this disorder as he did. Listening to his thoughts and learning things from my Bella's therapy sessions have given me a sufficient education on the subject.

I looked back at Carlisle with furrowed brows. "I kind of figured that, but what did you mean earlier when you said 'I think she's brand new'?"

He nodded, understanding my slight confusion on the matter. "I meant, I think this is the first time she's come around…ever. The _very _first time."

I nodded slowly, absorbing this information.

"I think it also explains why she doesn't have a name," he concluded.

"Okay…" I whispered, turning my gaze back to the door when it opened. "Did you flush?" I asked her.

"No," she answered, then turned right back around and hit the flush button.

I watched as she silently stood by the toilet and watched the flush process play itself out. When it was through, she turned around and started walking back towards me again.

"Did you wash your hands?" I asked then.

She paused her steps. "No," she responded with a little shake of her head, then turned right back around, again, and went over to the sink to wash her hands.

I smiled.

_She listens well…_

So it would appear that she _is _potty trained, but she needs an occasional reminder when it comes to certain aspects of it.

I turned my gaze back to Carlisle. "So, if this is her first time out…then _everything _is new to her?" I asked, perplexed.

He nodded, gazing at me seriously. "Yes," he clarified. His thoughts mirrored his expression.

This alternate was brand new in _every _sense of the word. She wouldn't know what foods she liked, or what toys she wanted. She wouldn't be aware of what's dangerous and what's not…he was even wondering if we needed to child proof the damn house.

I furrowed my brow at that thought. She may be two, but she's in the body of an eighteen year old. Baby gates and cabinet hooks were not needed in this situation.

I noticed the water to the sink hadn't shut off yet, so I looked back over to the girl in question and found that she was pumping the fourth serving of antibacterial foaming soap into her hands with an adorable smile on her face. The bubbly substance was now overflowing in her little palm.

I chuckled. "Excuse me…" I muttered to Carlisle, not bothering to wait for his response before standing up and walking over to my little mate.

"Hi…" I called out softly when I was standing beside her.

She looked up at my reflection on the mirror. "Hi…" she responded, mirroring my tone.

I nodded pointedly to her hands. "Rub your hands together, sweetheart," I gently instructed.

She nodded, then flattened her palms against one another, and started a slow rubbing motion. After a few seconds, she looked up to me for approval. "Like this?" she asked, that little lisp still in place.

I smiled and nodded encouragingly. "Here, watch…" I told her, pumping some soap into my own hands and slowly rubbing them together.

She smiled and giggled softly, noticing that our hands were mimicking each other's movements.

After a few seconds, I said, "And now, you rinse…" then placed my hands under the faucet's running water.

She subtly nodded and paused her hand's movements, patiently waiting for her turn.

When I removed my hands from the warm water, I quickly dried them off on the small white hand towel, and watched as my mate rinsed her little hands in the same fashion.

She quietly yawned as she reached for the same small hand towel and dried her hands, just like she'd seen me do.

"Are you tired?" I asked softly.

"Edward?" she chirped.

I smiled. "Yes?"

"I got a new friend," Isabella informed me as she turned to face me.

I nodded. "Mm-hmm, I know it…"

She reached for me then, so I picked her up, knowing from my other little girl's yawn that she was just about ready for her afternoon nap.

"Charlie's gone, huh…" she inquired as she laid her head down on my shoulder.

I hit the bathroom's light switch and walked back into the bedroom with Isabella in my arms. "Mm-hmm…"

"Good."

I started pacing the room then, and noticed that Carlisle had left to go back downstairs and do some more research on dissociative identity disorder.

"Edward?"

"Yeah?"

"You're mine, huh?"

I tightened my hold on her, hugging her to me. "Yes baby love, I'm yours."

I felt her nod against my shoulder. "Mm-hmm…and Edward?"

"Yeah?"

"My toys are mine too, huh?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Yes…"

"Edward?"

I turned back the direction we had just come from and kept pacing. "Hmm?"

"My new friend needs toys too, huh?"

I nodded. "Yes, she does. She needs toys too, baby," I agreed.

She sighed out another little yawn then. "Yah-huh, mm-hmm…"

I furrowed my brow and began running the pad of my thumb along her small shoulder blade. "I don't see why you just can't share your toys, Isabella…that was mean earlier," I admonished her.

She lifted her head and furrowed her thin brow. "What was?" she muttered curiously in a small voice.

I gave her a slightly stern look. "Why couldn't she hold Fuzzy bear?"

"B'cuz he's mine," she said simply.

I sighed in exasperation and relaxed my features. "You girls are gonna have to learn how to share sooner or later," I told her.

Isabella slowly shook her head, keeping eye contact and started to suck on her pouty pink lips. "Mm-mmmm…" her voice lilted in disagreement.

I rolled my eyes, but didn't say anything further on the matter.

If Marie and Isabella wanted to be stubborn and possessive with their things, then I would just go out and get this new baby some toys of her own, and if _she _didn't want them playing with her new things, then they wouldn't be allowed to either.

Isabella is going to have to learn the hard way that it hurts when kids won't share their shiny new toys with you.

"Edward?"

I sighed and pushed my slight irritation aside, then sat down on the rocking recliner, kissing my little girl's soft, rosy cheek. "What, sweetie pie…" my voice trailed off as I started the soothing rocking motions of this chair.

She laid her head down on my shoulder, and I felt her left hand's little fingers slowly make their way into the hair at the nape of my neck. After a minute of lightly tickling my hair with her warm fingertips, I heard that familiar little sniffle sound off right next to my ear.

I furrowed my brow and started rubbing little circles on her back with my own fingertips, trying to coax a response out of her. Is she upset about the new arrival of another alternate? Is she still upset about Carlisle's betrayal with her pictures earlier? Is she upset that Charlie was here, in her room?

_Is she even upset, or is she just tired?_

"Want my granny…" her sad voice trailed off then.

_Aw._

I subtly nodded in understanding. "Sorry, angel…you miss your granny?"

She nodded. "Yah-huh…miss her bunches," she told me.

I sighed, deciding that talking about her grandmother could help make her feel better about it.

_It could also make her cry, though…_

Right.

I would have to be careful when it comes to the subject of dear old Granny.

I bit my lip and went through a hundred different possible questions before finally settling on one. "What do you miss about her, angel?" I asked, keeping her cradled to my chest and my voice soft.

_There; that one seems harmless enough._

"Miss her b'cuz she's nice and she gots Eskimo kisses for me all the tiiime…" she supplied in a tired voice.

I nodded, relieved that she wasn't upset, and kissed the silky hair lining her temple. "She does Eskimo kisses the best, huh?" I murmured against her warm skin.

She nodded. "Mm-hmm, I get 'em all the time b'cuz I'm her special girl," she told me.

I smiled. "She loves you very, _very _much," I assured her.

"I love her, too…but Edward?"

I kissed her shoulder. "Hmm?"

"I love _you _more…" her soft voice trailed off then.

I smirked.

_That's fucking right._

"I love you too, Isabella," I whispered my assurance.

"Mm-hmmm…" she hummed.

After a minute of rocking my little girl in silence, I got an idea and asked, "Baby, what was her name?"

"Granny."

I softly chuckled and noticed how it made a small trail of tiny goosebumps erupt along my mate's smooth shoulder. "No, pretty girl…her _name_. Like, I called my granny, Grandma, but her name was Elizabeth. So what's your granny's name?"

"Um…it's huhh…Huh-daaasss-uhh…um, I think," she told me, sounding out her grandmother's name in an unsure voice.

"Hadassah?" I hedged.

She nodded against my shoulder. "Yah-huh…huh-_dass_-uh," she confirmed, sticking her thumb in her mouth.

I smiled and kissed her cheek once more. "Okay, baby love…I think it's time for your nap," I whispered in her ear.

She nodded again, squeezing her left arm tighter around my neck, latching herself onto me further. I tightened my hold around her back in response, silently telling her that I'd hold her while she slept.

_I'll never let you go, angel…_

I kept up the slow rocking motion and began lightly humming her lullaby to the delicate shell of her ear, smiling when she was fast asleep four minutes later.

_Hmmm, Hadassah…a very pretty name for my very new baby girl._

_

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_

A/N:

So, you guys got a tiny little glimpse of the new alternate, 2yr old Hadassah. What do you guys think of the name Edward chose? I just thought it would be sweet if he named her after her Granny, since that woman was like a ray of hope all throughout Bella's childhood...and the only person Isabella ever loved.

And yes, Isabella remains as jealous and possessive as ever, and Edward is still her's - so for all the Isabella fans out there, no worries. She is happy that has a new friend, though...just like in the past when Bella was seven and the other's showed up; Isabella took control and was very happy that they were _her_ friends...and not Bella's.

There is still one more alternate to introduce, but don't worry, it won't be a little girl. I think poor Edward could use a break from having to be a parent alllllll the time. Go ahead & take a guess on who you think it will be. I'll give you a clue...it is one of the past 'others'.

Yes, kids, things are going to get alot crazier before they can get better. This is the seconds installment of this story, and there will be one more, sort of like a trilogy ~ so that should give you an idea on story length, for those of you that are wondering.

REVIEW for me sweets! Because I'm sick and it'll cheer me up :)


	2. Toys R Us Kids & A Man On A Mission

A/N:

It's story time, kids!

~ ENJOY ~

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EPOV

"Oooooo, Edward, we can get this one too, huh?"

I nodded, looking at the Bratz doll Isabella held in her hand. "Yes baby, we can get that one too," I replied.

She smiled and added the toy to our basket. "Yah-huh, it'll be fun to play with her…" she commented as we turned down another aisle in the toy store.

I nodded.

_Yes, her and the other eleven dolls you picked out._

"Okay, now that you picked a toy for yourself, try and find one for Hadassah," I told her.

She nodded and inspected the shelves full of toys with a look of silent amusement in her eyes.

We had been here, at Toys R Us, for an hour now, and my baby girl was loving every minute of it.

As soon as she had woken up from her nap, I told her that we needed to make a trip to the toy store because we had some very important shopping to do. She eagerly agreed and hurried to put on her shoes, completely forgetting to tie them before she went to stand up, causing her to almost trip on her laces. When she proved to be too excited to get ready to go all by herself, I had her sit on the bed while I tied her shoes for her, and then we were off. I had sped down the highway, wanting to get here as soon as possible because it was already almost four in the afternoon.

But now, it was almost 5:30, and it was pretty obvious that we weren't going to be home in time for dinner, so I started to think of different places I could go to feed my mate while Isabella went 'baby-toy-hunting'.

We had been going back and forth between these two particular aisles; one aisle had toys that Isabella seemed to be interested in, and the other one had toys a two year old would like. The only reason I know this, is because it has the preferred ages advertised on the box. And while Isabella was willing to grab just about anything for my new baby, Hadassah, I was trying to avoid things for _actual _babies…things like a baby mat jungle jim where the infant lays down and reaches up to play with the blinking, sparkly toys that make pretty sounds. It may look fun and intriguing to Isabella, and make her want to pick that out for her new friend, but she hasn't seemed to comprehend the fact that she's in the body of an eighteen year old just yet.

That being said, I looked down at our cart full of toys and quickly scanned it's overflowing contents. There was an assortment of every kind of Bratz doll in there, along with every color My Little Pony that Isabella could find. There were also a few more bath time accessories, including a new Elmo water doll and a fountain toy. There was a purple blankie identical to Isabella's that she had chosen for Hadassah, number and letter magnets for the fridge, a few soft cloth books, water color paints, several Playskool and Fischer Price 'Laugh And Learn' toys for toddlers, a few stuffed animals, an Activity Triangle, a LeapFrog laptop for Isabella, some new 3D sidewalk chalk, a pink O'Ball rattle where you try to fit the different shapes into the holes, a Baby Einstein Count and Compose piano (I picked that one out), and two soft Baby Born dolls; each one coming with it's own set of accessories.

I already had them holding two toy boxes up front by the registers for me; one purple and one pink, because Isabella really likes the color pink. She said so herself.

"Baby girl, do you think Hadassah would like a Bratz doll to play with too?" I asked, picking up a miniature Bratz doll, and eyeing it intently.

These dolls seemed to come in different ages, as well. There were the grown up dolls, dressed in what appeared to be hooker outfits, and then there were the baby ones, complete with a diaper and bib.

Isabella shook her head. "No, b'cuz those are the big girl toys, Edward, and Dassah is a baby. She gets baby toys," she told me, punctuating her statement by adding an Elmo play phone to the basket.

I furrowed my brow. "Well, how about you play with the grown up dolls, and she plays with the baby ones…" I trailed off in suggestion.

Isabella shrugged and added what looked to be another baby mat activity center to the cart. I sighed and took it out, then placed it back on the shelf.

Isabella furrowed her thin brow. "B-but-"

I cut off her protest by gently squeezing her hand and giving her a stern look. "Isabella, what did I tell you about these toys?" I asked, pointing to a shelf full of the damn things.

She looked up at the mats, then back at me, seeming to think about her answer. After a minute, her confused gaze turned sheepish, and she replied in an unsure voice, "Um…that they are for in-fants."

I nodded and brought my hand back down to my side. "Mm-hmm…and neither you, nor Hadassah, are infants. Remember how we talked about that, angel?" I asked, softening my features. Isabella nodded, so I continued on. "You're a big girl, and Hadassah is a toddler. She's too big for those baby mats," I reiterated.

"Kay," she muttered, nervously sucking on her bottom lip, probably afraid she was in trouble, or something.

I kissed her forehead to alleviate her fears. She wasn't in trouble, I was just slightly annoyed that that was the third baby mat I had to put back on the shelf. "Alright, now about these Bratz dolls…" I trailed off, holding up a baby Bratz in one hand and holding my mate's hand in the other.

Isabella furrowed her brow and looked at the doll collection she had successfully piled into the cart's basket. "Um…kay, but she can't play with my growed up dollies, Edward. She gets the baby ones, and I get the big ones, b'cuz I'm a big girl and she's not. She's a baby," she reasoned.

I nodded in agreement and put the small baby Bratz doll back in the cart.

"Edward?" Isabella asked, tugging me along to the next toy aisle.

"Hmm?

She reached for a Tinker Bell music box. "What about Joey?" she muttered distractedly while placing it in the cart.

"Wha-"

I was cut off by my own gasp.

_Oh, for the love of god..._

"Isabella."

She turned to look up at me, startled by my tone.

I kept eye contact with her as I gently pried the pink baby rattle out of her hand and placed it back on the shelf. "What do you mean, 'what about Joey'? Isabella, is there anyone else I need to know about?" I asked in a serious tone.

Isabella slowly shook her head, gazing at me with worried eyes. "Edward, I'm in trouble?"

_What?_

"No."

"You mad?"

I furrowed my brow and shook my head. "No, baby, but I need to know," I told her, leaning down a bit so that I was eye level with her. "I'm not mad…you're not in trouble," I assured her, softening my tone.

Isabella sniffled. "But you were makin your mad face…" she supplied in a small voice.

_Aw._

I nodded in understanding. "Sorry, sweetness, I didn't mean it…" I promised.

She nodded and stopped her little sniffles, reassured that she wasn't in trouble. "Kay."

I sighed, realizing that this was not a conversation to be having in a toy store, but it was a conversation that needed to happen, regardless. I reached out and gently tucked a few stray strands of hair behind her ear. "Angel, this is very important," I told her in all seriousness. When she nodded at me with wide eyes, I continued on. "I'm going to ask you a question, and I need you to be truthful with me and tell me _everything_…" I trailed off.

Isabella gave me a curious look and slowly nodded again.

_Alright, here goes…_

"Is there anyone else?" When she just furrowed her brow at my odd question, I placed a cool fingertip to her temple. "In _here_, baby…is there's anyone _in here_ besides you, Marie, and Hadassah," I clarified, letting my fingertip fall from her temple to gently trace the delicate line of her jaw.

Isabella slowly nodded. "There's Bella and Joey," she mumbled quietly, realizing from my soft tone that we needed to keep this conversation just between us. We were practically reduced to whispers by now.

I swallowed some venom, noticing her extremely close proximity and the fact that I needed to hunt soon. Very soon. "Alright…tell me about Joey," I requested, keeping my face impassive. The last thing I needed right now was to inadvertently make my 'mad face' again and scare my little girl in a fucking toy store.

Isabella leaned up against the side of the cart and lifted her bare knee to scratch while she scrunched up her little button nose in the most adorable way. She sighed and cocked her head to the side a bit when she placed her foot back down on the floor, and fourteen seconds later, she finally answered me. "He's a boy…" she told me, stating the obvious.

I nodded. "I kinda figured that angel, but can you tell me how old he is?" I asked, my voice back to normal.

She nodded and smiled at me. "He's two hands, Edward," she informed me. "He's _two whole_ hands. He's a big kid."

I sighed. "So, he's…ten?" I hedged, already knowing the answer.

She nodded, sucking on her bottom lip. "Mm-hmm."

_This is getting out of hand._

I know from a few therapy sessions ago, that this Joey person was around when my Bella was a child, just like Isabella was. So that would mean that an 'other' _has_, in fact, come back around, when my Bella was _so fucking sure_ that none of them were going to.

She obviously doesn't know her own mind.

_What the fuck am I gonna do with a ten year old? A **boy**, for that matter!_

I shook my head from it's thoughts, the fact that she is my mate coming to the forefront of my mind again.

I can deal with anything she throws at me, no matter what. I can handle this Joey person, just like I'm handling my girls. Everything is going to be fine.

Just fucking peachy.

I sighed, realizing that I can start 'handling' him the same way I would handle one of my girls, by getting him some things of his own.

_Right…but what would a ten year old boy want?_

I looked down at the cart and took notice of the preferred ages printed on some of the boxes.

_Bingo._

I could just go to the little boy's section and get everything that is marked for a ten year old.

_I'm a fucking genius._

I nodded to myself. "Alright angel, I think we need to go pay for this stuff, and then we can come back inside and get some things for Joey," I told her, gesturing to our full cart.

Isabella nodded. "Kay, but Edward?"

"Yes?"

She came up to my side and wrapped her little arms around my waist, squeezing me with all her small might. I smiled and wrapped her up in my arms, cradling her to my chest and dropping three kisses to the top of her silky head. She nuzzled her face into the middle of my chest, then rested her cheek against it. "I love you," she mumbled into my shirt.

I hummed, delighting in her sweet aroma despite the intense burn it was causing my throat at the moment. "I love you too, baby girl."

She squeezed me tighter. "And you're mine, huh?"

"Yes. I'll always be your's, Isabella," I reassured her for the tenth time since we had arrived and started picking toys out for Hadassah.

"And I'm yours, huh?"

_Mine._

I nodded. "Yes, baby love. You are mine."

"And I can have a hula-hoop too, huh?"

I chuckled and turned my head, just now noticing that we were standing directly in front of the hula-hoop display. I gave her one last gentle kiss and loosened my embrace. "Yes sweetheart, you can have a hula-hoop, but that's it. We need to go pay for this stuff and get an empty cart so that we can pick out some stuff for Joey, too," I told her.

She giggled and smiled brightly up at me as she stepped out of my embrace. "I'm gonna get a _pretty_ one," she told me, walking the three feet away towards the display of hanging hula-hoops.

"Are you going to get a pink one?" I guessed, trailing behind her with our cart full of toys.

"Yah-huh, a _pretty_ pink one, and - _ooo_!" she exclaimed, cutting herself off. "Edward, I want _that_ one!" she told me, pointing towards a hula-hoop that appeared to have clear liquid in the middle with pink glitter hearts, and stars dancing around inside of it.

I nodded my assent and reached for the round toy since she couldn't seem to reach for it herself. I placed it on top of our piled toys and was rewarded with another beaming smile from my precious little angel.

_Beautiful._

"S'pretty, huh Edward?" she asked me, eyeing the new hula-hoop with some intensity.

"Yes it is, baby girl, you picked out a _very_ pretty one," I commented.

"Mm-hmm…" she hummed, grabbing my hand and gripping it firmly in her own.

As we walked up to the front of the store, Isabella stuck her thumb in her mouth.

I immediately paused our steps, and reached for her wrist. "No…" I trailed off a bit firmly in a quiet voice.

She gasped and looked up at me when I gently pulled that little thumb out of her mouth. She whimpered and her bottom lip started to tremble just as I began to smell the salt in her unshed, developing tears.

My eyes widened a bit, realizing in that moment that this wasn't Isabella, but _Hadassah_.

Isabella doesn't cry anymore when I take her thumb away. She just shrugs it off and waits a few minutes to try again in hopes that I won't stop her the next time. It's a pattern…a _very_ predictable pattern.

_Shit, what do I do?_

I had to act fast, so I hugged her to me while I quickly reached inside my pocket for one of Isabella's lollipops.

"Shhh…don't cry, little one," I softly cooed to her ear, desperate for her not to cause a scene in the store. I was very grateful that we were standing in an empty aisle right now.

I stepped out of our embrace and held up the candy for her to see. I was glad to see that no tears had fallen, but her beautiful chocolate eyes were still glistening. And I need that fucking glisten to _stop_.

She looked at the tootsie pop curiously and silently reached for it. I smiled, glad that she was cooperating, and handed it over. After a few seconds of trying to tear the red paper wrapper off, she stomped her foot in frustration and handed it back to me. I chuckled and unwrapped it for her, then handed the tootsie pop back to my now-smiling, brand-new baby girl.

Glad that _that_ little crisis had been averted, I evveloped her little hand back in my own and continued on our journey to the front of the store, intent on the cashier that was holding the two toy boxes for me.

After loading everything onto the conveyor belt and paying the ridiculous $387 bill, I loaded the shopping bags into the cart and took my mate's hand in my own again.

Hadassah had been silent throughout the entire exchange between me and the sweet elderly cashier. She would suck on the lollipop, twirl it around in her mouth, pop it out and lick it with her tongue, but she never spoke a word.

She was a very quiet little girl.

Out in the parking lot, I instructed her to stand by the SUV until I was done loading everything in the back. I didn't want her walking around or wandering off into the space where vehicles drove by looking for a parking space. She nodded in acknowledgement of my instructions and kept that lollipop in her mouth as she stood by the back opening of the vehicle and watched my movements curiously.

"Do you like your candy, Hadassah?" I asked, putting the last bag of toys in the vehicle, and closing the trunk.

She furrowed her thin brow at me, but didn't speak.

_Right…she doesn't know her name._

I tucked a soft strand of hair behind her little ear. "Do you like that name, little one? Would you like to be called Hadassah?" I asked in a soft voice.

She nodded and reached for my hand with her small one. I immediately gripped it in my own, and turned back towards the store.

By the time I grabbed another cart and made it to the movie section, I was pretty sure that she wasn't going to answer me vocally, but she proved me wrong a second later. "My granny's name…" she said in that softly whispered voice with a faint high-pitched undertone.

I nodded and smiled at her. "Do you like it?"

She nodded.

"Okay, then...you're name is Hadassah," I proclaimed.

"Kay," she whispered, eyeing the colorful movies in front of her. She pointed to a Sesame Street dvd with a small smile, and I immediately placed it in the cart, unable to even _think _about telling her no, even though we already had plenty of cartoon dvds out in the car, as well as at home.

_Joey…get stuff for **Joey**!_

Right.

I sighed and looked around in the electronics section of this huge, overpriced toy store.

_What the hell do I get?_

"Ed-ward?" came a small whispered voice from beside me.

_Damn, I'm lucky I have vampire hearing._

I wouldn't be able to understand her if I didn't.

I turned to face her. "Yeah?"

She started shifting her slight body weight from side to side, lightly shuffling on her small feet. "Isabella says'ta tell you when I gotta potty…" she told me, her slight lisp still in place.

I nodded, already seeing where this conversation was going and started us in the direction of the bathrooms. "Mm-hmm…"

"And I gotta _potty_," she said with quiet desperation.

I nodded to her and picked up our pace, only stopping our hurried steps when we were standing in front of the ladies room. "Alright sweetheart, go in there and go potty," I gently instructed, pointing towards the gray door.

She look up at me with worried eyes. "You're not comin'?"

I widened my eyes.

_Uhmm…_

"Boys aren't allowed to go into the girl's bathroom," I supplied.

She rubbed her right eye with a tiny fist. "Will you get in trouble?" she asked, her R's sounding more like W's now that she was talking more.

So, it appears as though Hadassah has trouble with R's and S's, while Isabella has a problem with T's.

_Hmm…maybe I can help them with their speech every once in a while…sort of like a tutor, and then-_

"Ed-ward?" she whispered again, bringing me out of my reverie.

_Right. Potty time._

I subtly nodded. "Yeah, baby…I'll get in trouble," I answered.

She nodded in response, then stepped over and quickly hugged me before she handed me her lollipop. Once I took it from her with a promise to 'save it for later', she turned and made her way into the bathroom all by herself.

Like a big girl.

_Aw._

I smiled and kept my hearing trained on her heartbeat and slight movements, constantly reassuring myself that she was OK in there without me.

I started to try and think of different things a ten year old boy would like in an effort to distract myself from the fact that we were separated at the moment. Things like action figures, race cars, and video games came to mind, but I still wasn't sure if that was right. I concentrated really hard, and tried to remember my human memories as a boy, but what I could come up with was _very_ fuzzy, and it wasn't filled with toys. I remembered my mother…the way she dressed and how she smelled when she tucked me into bed at night. I remember playing outside with school friends…climbing trees and using our imagination for games. There weren't a lot of actual toys, though…and what they have now wasn't even around back in 1911.

_Ugh, it's hopeless._

Just then, my new baby girl came out of the bathroom and I decided to go off the usual checklist with her, remembering that she was still in that potty training phase.

"Did you wash your hands?" I asked, handing her back the tootsie pop.

She nodded and placed the candy in her mouth, but remained quiet.

"Alright," I said as I took her hand in my own and lead her back to the electronics section.

After she picked out which Elmo sing-a-long dvd she wanted, we went over to check out the video game selection.

We already had a PS3 and an XBOX 360 back at the mansion, and my Bella had a Nintendo DS, but I started to wonder if maybe Joey would want something of his own, so I grabbed a Wii. I scanned the many games that the game console had to offer and smiled, knowing that there was something in there for everyone in the family, my girls included. There were Mario games, dance games, sport games, music games, fighting games, Sonic games, and so on. I asked the sales associate for one of each, along with all the necessary controllers needed to play certain games. He happily obliged, proceeding to load up my cart with one of every single Wii game they had.

I sighed in relief, relaxing a bit at the sight of a video game collection any ten year old boy would kill for, and looked back at my mate…only to find that she was already looking at me through the corner of her eye with a curious look on her face.

She brought the red tootsie pop half way out of her mouth and twirled the candy in between her puckered lips before sticking it back in and tucking it into the side of her cheek. Her intent, yet curious stare never faltered as her eyes stayed focused on me.

After twelve seconds, she blinked once and cleared her throat.

I bit my lip, taking a pretty good guess that Hadassah wasn't around anymore and decided to just go with the flow.

_It worked with Isabella._

I quietly thanked the store's sales associate, then turned, intent on the little boy's toy section.

I silently reached for my mate's hand, but she discreetly drew hers back and crossed her arms over her chest, eyeing me somewhat suspiciously now.

_Oh, boy…_

I let my hand fall back to my side and gave her…or, _him_ a small smile. "Hello…" I trailed off in greeting.

"Are you a queer?" she asked then, in a voice that was very similar to my Bella's mellow one, but was just a little bit raspier.

I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. "_What_?"

"A queer…you know, a fag. Because, dude - wanting to hold my hand? That's kinda gay," she clarified. Or, _he_ clarified.

Whatever.

"Joey…" I trailed off, to which recognition lit his up his eyes.

_Damn, it's going to be hard thinking of my mate as a boy…_

I subtly shook my head at my thoughts. "No, I'm not gay," I confirmed. "That _is _your name, right? Joey?" I asked.

He smiled and stuck out his hand for me to shake. "The one and only," he proclaimed.

I smiled and enveloped my mate's little hand in my own, amusing Joey by actually shaking it in a formal greeting.

His smile doubled in size as he looked up at me in amazement and said, "_Wow_, your hand is big. Big and cold."

I chuckled and nodded in agreement, then offered him the handle bar of the cart, since he didn't seem to want to hold hands. He eagerly took it, then took a moment to quickly scan his surroundings. Realization seemed to dawn on his features a few seconds later and excitement quickly took over when it was obvious that we were standing in the middle of a toy store. He gripped the cart's handle bar so tightly that his knuckles began to turn white, then he raced off towards the aisle where all the remote control cars, nerf guns, and action figures from various films were.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, reaching his hands up in the air for the top shelf where a large remote controlled Army Hummer lay.

I smiled, pleased that I wouldn't have to blindly pick out toys for him after all, and reached for the toy that had caused him to start bouncing in place over. "Here you go," I said in offering.

He gasped, almost as if in disbelief. "It can be _mine_? I can play with it?" he asked, his excitement barely concealed in his Bella-like voice.

I nodded. "Of course. Anything you want, you can have," I assured him.

He beamed up at me. "Wow! You're the coolest best friend _ever_!" he exclaimed, side-hugging me in a very manly way, then going down on his knees to check out the camouflaged toy I had placed on the ground.

I smiled.

_I'm the coolest best friend **ever**._

I guess I would have to settle with just being Joey's 'best friend', since it was very obvious that I wouldn't be able to interact with him the same way I would with my girls. He wouldn't want to cuddle, or kiss…or hold hands. Pacing the room with him in my arms wouldn't calm him down. No…I would have to handle things _very_ differently with young Joey.

And I'm not too sure how I feel about that.

"Awesome!" his voice exclaimed, pressing different buttons on the exposed remote control.

I chuckled, the sound seeming to bring him out of his toy-induced reverie. "Would you like anything else, Joey?" I asked, picking the large toy up off the ground and placing it in the cart next to the video games. "You can have _anything_ you want. Just point to whatever you want, and I'll put in the cart," I assured him.

He laughed and smiled up at me, nodding as if he liked that idea, but then suddenly stopped a split second later. His face turned from happy and excited to serious and somber so fast, that it almost gave me whiplash.

"Where's dad?" he whispered to me then, taking a careful step back, away from me.

I furrowed my brow, then gritted my teeth a second later when realization dawned on me.

_Fucking Jim._

Joey is a product of Jim's abuse, just like my little Isabella. So…it looks like he is going to be displaying the behavior of an abused child, as well. He'll probably be prejudice too, hence the 'queer' comment earlier.

_Fucking hell._

"Jim isn't here, Joey," I said, quick to reassure him. "You live with _me_ now, and you-"

"What?" he breathed, furrowing his brow and cutting me off. "Did he _give me_ to you?" he asked, his voice strained.

"What? _No_!" I told him, furrowing my own brow in exasperation. "Joey…" I trailed off with a sigh. "So much has happened, and I know that you're confused right now, but the basics are - Jim _isn't_ around. He is _dead_. And you live with _me_. And the fact that you live with me has _nothing_ to do with Jim…okay? He didn't -" I paused to shake my head, "He didn't _give_ you to me," I promised.

He bit his bottom lip then, reminding me a lot of my Bella, before he reluctantly nodded. "Dad would beat me if I got new toys, but Dad's not around, huh?" he asked then, reassuring himself with his quiet statement. He turned his head and eyed the super soakers and Nerf guns appreciatively. "So, I can get new toys and not get a fuckin beatin for it," he muttered to himself.

That last statement both enraged, and saddened me.

_I'll beat **anyone** who tries to take your toys away from you_ I silently vowed.

And I would.

I sighed. "That's right," I confirmed in an even tone.

He nodded, suddenly all smiles and laughter again.

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the subject of that sick fucker hadn't brought him down.

"I want a gun!" he told me, pointing to the black and green Nerf gun with thirty interchangeable foam bullets.

I nodded and reached for it, just like I had promised. "You got it," I told him with a smile.

And so it went on…Joey proceeded to run up and down all the aisles, picking out random 'cool toys' while I trailed behind him with our shopping cart. I let him have his fun, fully aware that he had never gotten this opportunity before. No one had ever taken my Bella to a toy store as a child, and told her to go to town…to just go crazy and pick out any toy she wanted.

I took great delight in being able to provide for my mate so well…_all_ aspects of my mate.

While he stood in a fucking trance in front of the display of Hulk and Transformers toys, I discreetly added a new ten-pack of pacifiers, both sparkle neon and pastel colored, to the cart for both of my little girls.

It was obvious that I was going to have to reevaluate Isabella's thumb rule and the current pacifier dilemma. I decided that I didn't really mind the pacifiers, as long as neither of them used it as a substitute for sustenance. And a thumb at bedtime is still fine, but I think that Hadassah is going to want hers at other times too, and _that_ will eventually cause a problem between me and Isabella if she begins to view it as me being unfair. If that happens, then I'll have to enforce the bedtime rule with Hadassah as well, and just offer her a lollipop or a pacifier as a placating alternative.

I picked up a blue toy shelf and put it underneath the cart in it's storage compartment. It was in a box, just like a bookshelf, and would have to be built when we got home, but I was fine with that. It was the perfect place for Joey to put his toys and other belongings. I could set a toy box on either side of it, and put them up against the wall in our bedroom, because it was fairly obvious that Isabella's plastic basinet wasn't a sufficient place to put toys anymore.

After Joey set a bucket of Legos in the cart, he nodded to me with a smile. "Dude, this is gonna be _so_ fun! We can build legos and race cars when we get home, huh?" he asked excitedly before adding as an afterthought, "Isabella showed me what home looks like."

I nodded and started walking up to the front of the store to check out for the second time this evening. "She did?" I asked, slightly perplexed by that thought.

"Yeah, uh-huh…" he paused to take a deep breath, then sighed. He was slightly out of breath from either excitement, or running around - I wasn't sure which. "Edward."

I slightly halted my steps and looked at him the second my name quietly fell from his lips.

I hadn't told him my name.

"Hm?"

He looked up at me a bit sheepishly. "She says that your ours, Edward, and that you won't let Dad hurt us…you won't let him find us. So, you're OK," he said with a little nod, falling into step beside me.

I took the opportunity to loosely wrap my arm around my mate's frail shoulders, now that we were standing in line. "No…I won't let anyone hurt you," I assured him, then quickly released my hold, just now remembering his apparent distaste for affection from other guys, and gently patted his back twice in reassurance.

He nodded and lightly bumped his fist on my own. "We're best friends, huh?" he asked then.

_That's fucking right._

I gave him a smug smile. "The _best_," I assured him as I started placing random items on the conveyor belt.

Again.

"Got anything to eat?" he asked out of nowhere as I placed the bucket of Legos on the belt.

I turned to him and silently nodded, reaching in my pocket and pulling out three of Isabella's lollies.

He gazed at them apprehensively. After a minute, he looked up at me and asked, "Which one is Isabella's?"

I shrugged, not really sure because she hadn't specified which one she wanted in particular.

"She gets dibbs," he explained as an afterthought.

I slowly nodded in understanding.

_Right. Isabella is in charge, apparently._

"Um…why don't you ask her?" I suggested quietly as the cashier busied himself with ringing up the remainder of our purchases.

Joey nodded, and after twelve seconds, selected the cherry blow pop. "She wants grape," he told me then.

I nodded, silently marveling at their unique ability to communicate, and placed the grape blow pop in my left pocket, reserving it for Isabella, and the chocolate tootsie pop in my right, in case I needed it for any of my other girls later on.

After I paid an insane amount of money for these particular toys, and finished loading the second round of goodies into the back storage area of the SUV, I heard my mate's stomach growl. I slammed the trunk closed and walked around to the driver's side, slipping inside with ease and noticing the 7:00 hour. "Are you hungry?" I asked.

"Where's _my_ toy, Edward?" Marie countered.

_Oh… Shit._

"What would you like, sweetheart?" I quickly asked with a smile, reaching into my pocket and offering her a chocolate tootsie pop.

_Please don't be mad._

No wonder she feels left out all the time. I didn't get her anything!

_Idiot!_

She eyed the brown paper wrapper with disdain, then very _loudly_, almost pointedly, popped the cherry blow pop out of her mouth, reminding me that she _already_ had a lollipop to suck on.

_Damn it._

"Honey…darling…" I started in a soft, cooing voice. "Tell what you want, and we'll go get it _right now_, I promise. But first, you need to tell me what you want to eat. Pick a place, any place. I'll treat you to a nice steak dinner…"I trailed off suggestively before hastily adding, "or lobster, if you want-"

"Shut up, Edward," she said softly with a little chuckle, cutting me off with a subtle shake of her head. "God_damn_, you really are pussy whipped," she remarked.

I bit my lip and smiled.

_You have no idea._

She sighed and seemed to think about her answer. "I want a cheeseburger and a haircut," she noted decisively with a nod.

I started to nod in response, but immediately cut it short and sharply turned my head to look at her, not liking that second request _at all_. Not one bit.

_Please tell me I'm hearing things._

"A…h-haircut?" I asked, my voice surprisingly strained as my lips formed to speak that wretched, blasphemous word.

_But **why**?_  
_  
_  
_No!_

She nodded. "Yeah, Edward. A _hair-cut_," she articulated. "I want a fuckawesome new doo, one that doesn't have my hair always falling in my face all the fuckin time. Plus, do you know how hard it is to have hair this long?" she asked, bunching up her waist long lock in her tiny fists. "Not only is it annoying because you can't style the shit in anything but a goddamn ponytail, but it gets heavy too, and it strains on your neck. It's fucking ridiculous," she told me, her tone laced with frustration and exasperation.

I slowly nodded, absorbing this newfound information and her logical reasoning.

_It **hurts** her?_

"It hurts you? Your neck hurts, baby?" I asked with furrowed brows, extremely concerned all of a sudden.

She nodded. "Mm-hmm…and me and Jo already discussed it. We both voted that a haircut is definitely in order, and the two snotty brats couldn't a fuck either way," she informed me.

I was taken aback. They had _discussed_ it?

_Without me?_

"Don't worry, my Bell will love it," she went on. "The style that I have in mind is both fuckhott, _and_ simple, all in one! It'll be shoulder length with just a few layers to add some body to it," she told me with a little nod.

"It _hurts_ you?" I repeated, completely perplexed by that idea.

She nodded. "_Duh,_ that's what I just said," she said with a little roll of her eyes.

"Okay…" I muttered, my quiet voice cracking with the weight of our topic and what I was about to say.

_I can't believe I'm going to say this._

I sighed, and began. "Okay, love. I'll get you a cheeseburger, and a…a…a fucking h-haircut, if that's what you want," I relented with a small nod.

I was rewarded with a bright smile and warm lips on mine a second later. I smiled, taking the rare opportunity to kiss my girl on her sweet mouth for the first time today.

"I love you so fuckin much, Edward," she told me when she finally pulled away for a breath of fresh air.

"I love you too, Marie," I assured her with a small smile.

She bit her lip and smirked as her stomach growled at me again. "So…haircut, or cheeseburger first?" she asked.

I swallowed some venom and turned on the ignition. "Cheeseburger."

"Fuckawesome." 

I had taken Marie to the Backyard burger here in Port Angeles and watched in silence as she consumed her cheeseburger and fries while animatedly talking about her intended 'new doo', and Joey, and Bella, and Hadassah, and Isabella. It appears that she's not _too_ annoyed with the two new arrivals, she just doesn't want to be drowned in baby dolls and pacifiers all the time. It's clear from her interactions with Katy that she has a maternal side to her, but it's _very_ fleeting. After an hour or two, she's ready to ditch the baby stuff and get back to her teen life, which is completely understandable _and_ normal. She's only seventeen, after all.

"I'm full, Edward," she told me, swallowing a fry and taking the last sip of her cherry coke.

I nodded and stood from our table. "Let's go get that haircut then, love," I suggested.

She smiled, then followed suit, and soon we were back on the road, on our way to the SmartStyle salon inside the local Walmart a few blocks over. I pulled into a parking spot towards the back of the lot, and waited until Marie was finished singing her song, Everytime by Britney Spears, to turn off the car.

"Do you think they're still open, babe?" I asked, noting the late hour and the darkened world around us.

She glanced towards the glowing clock on the dashboard and nodded. "Yeah. It's only 7:58. I think they stay open till nine," she told me.

I nodded. "Okay, then let's go."

She opened the glove box then, and reached for a stick of her spearmint gum. After popping it in her mouth, she repeated, "Yeah. Let's go."

And with that, we were both out of Jasper's SUV and walking hand in hand towards the busy entrance of Walmart.

It turned out that the salon was located just inside the sliding glass doors, to the left. And they _were_, in fact, open.

_Damn it._

Marie immediately walked in like she owned the damn place and wrote her name down on the customer's sign in sheet. Not even ten seconds later, a man approached her, smiling and saying that he would take care of her.

My possessive instincts took over and I subtly growled, but successfully held myself back at his tame thoughts. He was a homosexual - there was no doubt about it, and he meant no secret sexual innuendo with that 'take care of you' comment.

I glared at the hand that he placed at the small of my mate's back, and placated myself by eyeing him with a look of contempt and slight disgust.

I didn't want him touching her hair.

_Mine._

Goddamn it, I need to calm the fuck down.

Marie wants a new haircut, so she's going to get a new haircut.

No matter how much my insides burn and coil in protest at the mere thought of it.

My girls will _always_ get what they want…they come first, not me.

_They come first, not me… They come first, not me… They come first, not me…_

I kept repeating that mantra inside my head and looked through a pointless, mundane magazine as Marie went through the process of getting her hair washed.

_**I** want to wash her hair, goddamn it._

I suppressed another growl and quickly switched magazines, listening to my mate's precious heartbeats. It was a wonder how that single, small sound could calm me down from a murderous rage.

_Oh my God!_ my mind screamed as I watched the hairstylist's scissors take that inevitable first _snip_.

It took everything I had inside of me not to rip that wretched tool out of his hand and haul Marie's ass out of that fucking chair, and out of this stupid, crowded store.

I gripped the magazine tightly in my hands until I heard a small _rip_ coming from the colorful paper. I looked down and realized that I was tearing at the binding, so I discreetly set the book down and looked around…I looked _any_where and _every_where but at that disgusting sodomite with the offending pair of scissors cutting away at my mate's silky long locks.

_Don't think about it… Don't think about it… **Don't** think about it…_

I closed my eyes and palmed my face, setting my elbows on my knees and taking the advice of the new mantra running it's course through my mind.

I breathed in the smell of aerosol cans and chemicals, but my mate's heavenly scent was like a beacon of light through it all, keeping me grounded. That, and the sounds of her voice and heartbeat. I focused on how her blood rushed through her veins, singing the most enticing, beautiful song to me…calling to me…

Venom flooded my mouth at that thought, and I was quickly reminded of my need to hunt.

After some quiet contemplation, I decided that I would go hunting after I tucked my mate into bed tonight. I would wait until after she fell asleep, and hopefully I'd be back before she woke up in the morning. I recoiled from the thought of her waking up, wanting me and calling out my name, but me not being there.

Yes. I will definitely hurry and make it a quick trip, just like all the others.

_I **will** be there when my sleeping beauty awakes_ I silently vowed.

"Edward, isn't it sooo awesome and pretty?" her voice sounded then, much closer than it had been before.

I opened my eyes and looked up from my hands to the most…_beautiful_ sight in the whole wide world.

I smiled and stood from the hard plastic chair, immediately enveloping my small girl in my arms. "It's beautiful, love," I assured her, gently running my fingertips through her newly styled hair and kissing her forehead. "You're gorgeous," I whispered to the shell of her ear.

It actually looked _really_ good. Her chocolate silky locks fell around her shoulders and framed her soft, perfect features in the most…well, _perfect_ way.

She smiled brightly up at me. "You like it?"

I nodded and kissed her smooth forehead again. "I love it…I love _you_," I murmured against her warm flesh.

She smiled and hummed softly in content. "Hmmm…love you too, Edward."

I nodded and took her hand in mine, then walked us up to the register where the hairstylist was waiting to be paid. I avoided making eye contact with the hair chopping fucker and politely handed over the $18, then walked out of the store with my beautiful mate in tow.

"Kitty…?" she softly whispered once we were halfway down the parking lot.

I looked at Hadassah in question. "What was that, baby?"

"Ed-ward, kitty?" she repeated, sticking her thumb in her mouth.

I quickly retrieved the chocolate tootsie pop out of my pant's pocket and held it up for her viewing pleasure. "Hadassah, your thumb is going to be for bedtimes, alright? You can have a lollipop until then," I told her, taking the wrapper off of the sticked candy and handing it over.

"I want my thuuuuumb…" she whined.

"No," I reiterated, still holding the lollipop out in offering.

She furrowed her brow in frustration and stomped her foot.

I glared at her. "Stop it."

I had never been more appreciative of my experiences with Isabella than I was right at this moment. Because of my little girl, I was an expert at handling temper tantrums.

And preventing developing ones.

She sniffled and took her thumb out of her mouth, bringing Marie's chewed up gum out along with it. "I can have candy?" she whispered then, pointing to the opened lollipop, and dropping the green wad of gum onto the ground.

I nodded and placed it in her outstretched hand. "Yes baby, you can have candy for now, and you can have your thumb at bedtime. And if you want, you can have a binky when we get home," I assured her.

She smiled and stuck the tootsie pop in her mouth. "Kay."

We continued walking then, and when we got to the passenger side of the SUV, Hadassah repeated her earlier inquiry. "Kitty?"

I opened her door for her. "You want a kitty cat, baby? Is that what you're saying?" I asked, wanting to be sure we were both on the same page.

She climbed into her seat, then looked back at me and nodded, smiling shyly with the candy's stick hanging out of her pink pursed lips.

I sighed, thinking about all the complications having a cat in the house could cause. Not only would it not be comfortable in my family's presence, but one of us might always be tempted to eat the damn thing.

"Please?" her softly whispered voice pleaded with me.

I sighed.

_But what my baby wants, my baby gets._

Consequences be damned.

I looked at my watch and noticed the time. 8:28. The Port Angeles Animal Shelter closed at nine. If we hurried, we might be able to make it there in time.

I nodded and kissed her soft rosy cheek. "Okay baby girl, we can go get you a kitty," I consented.

She giggled and smiled brightly at me in response.

"Now buckle up, angel, because we have to hurry," I told her.

She nodded and reached for her seatbelt as I softly clicked her door shut. Once I was back in the driver's seat, I traveled east for twelve miles, making a bee line for the local animal shelter, hoping that they would have a kitten in there somewhere.

Just as I was pulling into a parking space with ten minutes to spare, my cell phone rang.

"Yeah?" I greeted, pressing the phone to my ear, and unbuckling my baby's seat belt for her.

"Edward, Esme is on her way to the store right now, picking up the necessities for Bella's new kitty cat," Alice squeaked.

I nodded, relieved that she had apparently seen a vision of us bringing home a cat. That would mean, obviously, that this shelter does have a kitten for my little girl, and that the family is fine with it if Esme was already at the store shopping for the damn thing.

"Thank you, Alice."

"Yeah, whatever - no problem. It's not like I did anything," she remarked. "Anyways, what kind of stuff does a cat need besides litter and food?" she asked curiously.

I subtly shrugged to myself, ushering Hadassah into the entrance of the shelter with just minutes to spare. "Um, I don't know…" I trailed off, taking a minute to quickly scan the minds of a few workers to get an idea of what a domesticated feline needs. "Um, probably some toys, a scratching post, some treats…uh, make sure she gets some litter box accessories, too…like, maybe a scooper and some liner bags that will make it easier to change out the box when needed."

"Okay, yeah!" she exclaimed. "Jeez, why didn't I think of that stuff?" she muttered quietly to herself. "Alright well, I'll give Esme a call. Good luck!" she exclaimed before the line went dead.

I put my phone back in my pocket and kept my little girl protectively tucked into my side as we approached the podium and signed in. A young girl with curly hair and a high pony tail stepped forward, her thoughts somewhat annoyed with our impeccably late timing.

"How can I help you folks? Do you want a cat…a dog…are you dropping off an animal?" she guessed, grasping at straws.

I subtly shook my head. "A kitten, please," I said politely, giving her a small smile.

After a minute of being star-struck by my evil gold eyes, she distractedly nodded and smiled, going on about a few litters of kittens that had come in this past week, what with it being Spring, and all.

Hadassah and I trailed close behind, turning left when we got to a certain hallway and entered the Feline section. I had to hold my breath as the smell of ammonia was beginning to become a bit much for my overly sensitive nose.

"Alright, well I'll give you guys a minute to make your selection and bond with the animals. I'll be up front," she told us, then promptly left the small room full of caged cats.

After a minute of standing in the middle of the room and silently observing the animals, I urged Hadassah forward. "Go on, baby…go pick one. You can have any one you want," I gently coaxed.

"Edward, we're gettin a _kitty_?" Isabella asked then, her excitement on the matter barely concealed in her tone.

I nodded, coming up with an idea. "Mm-hmmm…and it's for you _and_ Hadassah to _share_, so you two should go ahead and pick one out as soon as possible because this place is getting ready to close, baby," I told her, happy with my decision to make the animal belong to _both_ of them. It was the perfect opportunity to 'break the ice' on the sharing front, so to speak.

Isabella nodded, turning her head to observe several different cats, before her gaze finally landed on a fluffy white kitten with light blue eyes. She smiled, intrigued, and stepped closer to it's cage.

When she stuck her little index finger through one of the cage's holes, it rubbed it's tiny pink nose and furry cheek against her hand. She giggled and turned to look at me for approval, the action causing her silky hair to wave around and frame her smiling, rosy cheeks. After an encouraging nod from me, she quickly turned her attention back on her furry little friend. It started purring and licked her fingertip a few times before rubbing the side of it's small body against her hand.

Isabella giggled again. "I _like_ you," she told it.

After another small giggle, she withdrew her hand, then turned to face me and whispered, "Want this one, Ed-ward."

I nodded my assent to Hadassah. "Okay, baby. We'll get that one."

She smiled, then came back over to me, immediately tucking herself into my side. "Love you, Ed-ward," she told me, wrapping her thin arms around my waist.

_Aw_.

I kissed the top of her head and hugged her to me. "I love you too, Hadassah."

She stepped out of my embrace a minute later and went back to the cage. "Well, hey there, little guy," Marie cooed to it. She smiled and unlatched the cage's lock, successfully setting the kitten free. When she brought the furry little ball of fluff to her chest, she kissed the top of it's head, then turned and came back over to my side. "Ready to go?" she asked then.

I smirked. "I was ready to go like five minutes ago, love," I told her as I took her free hand in mine and walked us out of the room stuffed full of felines.

When we were back up at the podium, the bubbly girl with curly hair, whose name I had learned was Sarah, placed the tiny kitten in a cardboard carryout box with holes in the top of it.

She assured us that there was a small toy in there to occupy the animal on our drive home, and that the kitten had already had it's first series of shots at six weeks old. It was then that we learned the small animal's sex and age…a six week old female.

After some instruction to only feed it Kitten food and to water it everyday, she suggested that we set up an appointment at our local vet in a few weeks time. I agreed and signed off on the adoption papers, then paid the $30 fee, and left the building, my mate and fluffy white kitten in tow.

In the car ride home, Marie sang along to Jamie Foxx's Blame It On the Alcohol and finished off Hadassah's chocolate tootsie pop for her, occasionally using it as a microphone to sing her song. She placed the cardboard box on the floorboard by her feet and eventually turned the volume down when she heard the soft mewls coming from inside of it.

"Kitty!" she exclaimed brightly, and I knew then that she wasn't Marie anymore. Isabella's high-pitched voice had just reminded me of that child on her Monsters Inc movie. That little movie character says that 'kitty' word all the goddamn time, and Isabella had just mirrored it's tone perfectly.

I chuckled. "She's in there, baby…in that box," I informed her as I made a left turn and took the ramp onto the highway.

She giggled softly. "Edward?"

"Yes?"

"She's a _girl_ baby kitty, huh?"

"Yes."

"I can hold her?" she wondered out loud.

_Hmmm…_

I glanced over at Isabella and gave her a serious look before turning my attention back to the road. "If you take her out of that box, then you need to hold her, baby girl. Don't put her down so she can walk all around the vehicle, and if you get tired of holding her, then put her back in the box. Understand?" I pressed, taking the opportunity to fix her with another hard stare.

She sucked on her bottom lip for a few seconds and nodded. "Kay."

I nodded in return, switching lanes and deciding to just stay in this one until we came upon our exit forty miles down the road. "Alright, angel…go ahead and take her out of the box," I relented.

She beamed up at me, then quickly turned her attention down to the box by her feet. She carefully opened the top flap and peered inside of it.

The kitten meowed at her and she giggled back.

After she reached inside and scooped up the small animal, she followed my instructions and held it to her chest, cuddling and nuzzling it's soft fur with her little button nose.

_Aw._

The kitten's squeaky meows quickly turned into a contented purr as it promptly fell asleep on my angel's shoulder, snuggled into the side of her neck.

"Edward?" she whispered then.

"Yes, baby love?" I responded in an equally soft voice.

"My baby kitty's sleepin, huh?"

I nodded. "Yes. She fell asleep all cuddled up on your shoulder, sweetheart," I confirmed.

Isabella giggled softly, trying her best to remain as quiet as possible. "It's b'cuz she loves me, huh?"

I smiled warmly at her.

_How could anyone not love you?_

"Yes, baby, she loves you…"

Isabella nodded, that adorable smile never leaving her beautiful face, then relaxed back into her chair, humming along with the tune on the radio.

I soon recognized the song to be Flyleaf's There For You and subtly turned the volume up, since my baby girl apparently knew this song and didn't seem opposed to singing along with it. She softly hummed to her new kitty, occasionally singing a few words here and there, but eventually started to yawn and tiredly rub her eyes, so I told her that she needed to lean her seat back for a naptime.

It was late enough for it to be _bed_time, but she would have to wake up as soon as we got home; she still needed a bath and we had to set up a little area for her new kitten to spend the night.

Normally, I would take care of it all myself and let my little girl go to bed, but I decided that this kitten was going to be _her_ responsibility. She would need to participate in taking care of it's needs, just as much as I would, whether she was tired or not. It's all a part of being 'a big girl'.

Hadassah would need to learn too. She could be in charge of making sure that the cat always had toys to play with. Isabella could be responsible for feeding and watering it everyday. I would take care of everything else…litter boxes and vet visits, included.

She turned on her side then, following my instructions, and repositioned the sleeping bundle of fluff so that it was cuddled around her left breast, then reached out for my hand with her own. I let her hold my hand and play with my fingers until she eventually drifted off to sleep, the usual "mine" whispered from her lips just seconds later. 

Fifty-four minutes later, I pulled into the garage and immediately noticed something different…Emmett was home.

I smiled. I had missed that big lug.

_Rosalie had better not start anything._

I gritted my teeth at that thought and protectively palmed my mate's head where she lay, sleeping peacefully by my side.

No…Rosalie won't start anything.

She went on vacation with her mate and thoroughly calmed the fuck down before they decided to return home.

And if not? Then they can leave again.

Or I will.

I nodded to myself, satisfied with my decision to take my mate and leave if anymore fuckery was afoot, and started the process of gently waking my little sleeping beauty.

She was curled up in a ball in the laid back passenger seat, and she had that kitten protectively tucked into her chest, covering it with her small hand and snuggling with it.

_Aw._

I turned off the ignition and stuffed my keys in my pocket, then leaned over and started kissing my mate's forehead. I gently wiped her newly styled hair out of her face and began running my fingers through it.

"Wake up, angel…" I murmured against her warm flesh.

"Mmmm…" she moaned sleepily and squirmed a bit, before letting out a tired sigh and falling still again.

I chuckled lightly, igniting goosebumps along her cheek before I kissed it. "Wake up, pretty girl…" I softly sang.

She subtly squirmed again, then sighed as her eyelashes began to flutter until they eventually popped open.

I smiled. "There she is…" I softly cooed to her, taking my fingers out of her hair, and running their cool tips along her delicate jaw line.

She immediately smiled up at me, then quickly dropped her eyes to the kitten, wanting to reassure herself that it was still there, apparently.

"Edward?" Isabella croaked, her voice thick with sleep.

"Hmm?"

She sat up and brought the kitten to her chest. "Can I carry my baby kitty inside, or do I gotta put her back in the box?" she asked curiously.

I subtly nodded. "Put her back in the box for now, angel. We'll let her back out when we have a spot all set up for her in the bedroom," I reasoned.

"Kay," muttered, tiredly rubbing her right eye and lowering the kitten back into the cardboard carryout box.

It meowed in protest, but she ignored it, choosing to listen to me and closed the top flap instead.

Inside, Esme had already set up a soft cat bed in the corner of our room with a small assortment of tiny toys laying on the ground beside it.

Isabella immediately went over to the kitty corner and knelt down, setting the box to her side. I watched as she opened the top flap and carefully extracted the kitten, then laid it down on it's new bed. It started walking around the soft pink surface, sniffing and exploring, while Isabella sat Indian style in front of it and tried to introduce it to it's new toys.

While she jingled-jangled different colored balls and tossed a small catnip toy around, I got to work in setting up the new litter box in our adjoining bathroom.

It was fairly easy once I read the instructions on the back. I mean, I got the gist of it, I just wasn't sure if I was supposed to put the entire box of cat litter in the pan, or save some for later. Anyway, after the litter box was lined and filled, I put it in a secluded corner in the large bathroom and told Isabella to bring the kitten in here, so that we could show it where the litter box was.

"I havta show it where the potty is, Edward?" she asked from the bedroom as her small feet padded along the hardwood floor leading to our bathroom.

"Yes, angel," I replied once she was standing in front of me. I pointed to the prepared litter box. "Put the kitty in there Isabella, and let her find her way back to the kitty bed and toys. That way, she'll know how to navigate around the room, and she'll always know where the potty is when she needs to go," I reasoned.

Isabella nodded, heeding my advice, and gently placed the tiny animal in the grainy, sandy substance.

It's little paws scooped the material around immediately, and after it sniffed a few times, it actually used the damn thing.

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that it appeared to already be house trained, and that I wouldn't have to clean up random puddles of cat urine anytime soon.

After the kitten covered it's mess with a dainty paw, it hopped out of the litter box and walked out of the bathroom with Isabella hot on it's heels.

I smiled and followed after the two of them. After a few minutes of watching Isabella play with the kitten and it's new toys, I suggested that we go downstairs. "We need to make a food and water bowl for it now, sweetheart," I told her.

She nodded and stood, coming over to me and leaving the kitten to play with it's squeaky toys.

"Are you going to be a big girl for me, angel?" I asked then

"Yah-huh, Edward. I'm a big girl," she replied with a small smile.

I nodded. "Good. Because making sure your kitty has fresh food and water everyday is going to be your responsibility, princess."

She furrowed her thin brow. "Respon…sability?" she muttered curiously.

I nodded. "Yes, you're in charge of it," I clarified for her.

"Oh," she chirped, understanding the term 'responsibility' now. "Kay."

I enveloped her small hand in my own and led her down the stairs. "Okay, so we are going to prepare a bowl of food and a bowl of water for your new kitty, and then we'll bring it back upstairs to our bedroom. But after tonight, we're going to let the kitty explore the house, so we'll keep her food and water down in the kitchen from then on," I explained.

"Kay."

Emmett and Rosalie were busy fucking in their bedroom while I showed my little girl how to care for her new pet, so we didn't end up running into them on our trip up and down the stairs.

Once the cat was settled in with access to food, toys, and water, I told Isabella to get ready for her bath.

I needed to hurry up and get her tucked into bed so that I could leave to go hunt. The burn in my parched throat was starting to become really ridiculous, not to mention painful, and I had noticed a minute ago, while I was in the bathroom in front of a mirror, that the black specks of thirst had started to infiltrate my venom-glistened eyes.

"Edward?" Isabella chirped while I rummaged through our dresser drawers, trying to pick some pajamas for my little girl.

"Yes?" I muttered distractedly.

"Does my baby kitty want bubbles, too?" she asked over the roar of the tub's faucet.

I chuckled. "No, sweetheart…from what I understand, kitties don't like water. They only drink it, they don't play in it."

"But why?" she muttered curiously.

I shrugged, then turned around to face my little girl and set her pajamas on the bed. I had chosen a small black nightgown, and a pair of black cotton panties to match. The gown was formfitting and had thin shoulder straps, and I believe it would come down to her mid-thigh area. It was one of the articles of clothing that Alice had bought for her and tonight would be the first time she would wear it.

"I don't know, love…that's just the way kitties are," I supplied.

"But how come?"

I sighed and swallowed some venom, seeing an endless night of questions looming up ahead if I didn't put a stop to this right now. "Because their skin is sensitive and the warm water hurts them," I told her, almost completely sure that what I had just said was a lie, but not caring in the least because it had gotten her to shut up about wanting to inevitably bring the kitten into the bathtub with her.

"Kay," she muttered, apparently satisfied with my answer, then turned on her heel to go into the bathroom, black pajamas in hand.

I followed in after her and quickly shut the water off. After Isabella lifted her shirt over her head, I kissed her cheek and told her that I would be busy bringing in the toys from the car and reminded her to wash up real good and to get dressed in the bathroom.

She stood before me, clad in only a white lacy bra and a pair of faded jean shorts. "Kay, but Edward?"

"Hmm?"

"I gotta potty first," she informed me with a little nod.

I nodded. "Alright, baby love. Go potty, and then take your bath. I'll bring the toys in," I reiterated.

She nodded. "Kay."

And with that, I left my angel to do her business while I enlisted the help of Alice and Jasper to bring up the toys and new furniture from Jasper's SUV.

Alice was very curious about the kitten, and ran her fingertip along the top of it's head while it slept, but Jasper kept his distance, not at all interested in the white ball of fluff on the pink kitty bed.

On our many trips up and down the stairs with shopping bags full of toys, we talked about my mate's two new arrivals and Emmett's return home. They assured me that Rosalie had sufficiently calmed down and that Emmett wanted to see Bella, but I couldn't stop my protective instincts from kicking in.

My coven sister would _not_ be left alone with my mate - I don't care what they say.

And Alice already knew about Joey when she saw a vision of my Bella running up and down the aisles at a Toys R Us store, and picking out different action figures, along with a Super Soaker water gun. She told the family about him, and apparently, from what Jasper says, Carlisle's excitement spiked at the prospect of meeting yet another one of my Bella's alternates, but he was currently at the hospital completing an overnight shift, so that inevitable meeting would have to wait until later.

After we set twenty seven shopping bags, one boxed toy shelf, and two toy boxes down on the floor, Alice and Jasper excused themselves so that I could get my little girl out of the bathtub and into bed.

I knocked lightly on the bathroom door. "Isabella, baby…" I called out.

Her splashes abruptly stopped. "Huh?"

"It's time for bed, baby. Bath time is over," I informed her.

"Nooo…" she whined.

"Yeeesss…" I countered, matching her tone so that she could see how ridiculous she sounded when she whined.

She giggled. "Edward?"

I leaned my head up against the door. "Yes?"

"You're whinin, huh?"

"Yep," I replied, popping the P.

"Oooo, you're gonna get in trouuuble…" she playfully trailed off in a tone of warning.

I chuckled. "It's time for bed, baby," I reiterated in a soft voice.

"Kay, but I gotta wash the soapies outta my hair first," she told me.

"Okay, hurry up, angel. I'll put a movie on for you when you come out."

"Kay."

I tried to pick a juvenile movie while I listened to the sounds of water sloshing around as my mate rinsed out her hair. After a minute, I eventually chose Bolt and loaded it into the dvd player while I listened to the telltale signs of my mate getting dressed and brushing her teeth.

When she came out of the bathroom, hair dripping and damp, she went straight over to the pink cat bed and softly stroked the top of the sleeping kitten's head.

"Edward?" she asked, looking up at me from her squatted position on the floor.

I squatted down next to her, mimicking her position. "Hmm?"

"Kitty's tired, huh?"

"Yeah…"

She stood then with a little nod of acceptance, and handed over her hairbrush. I took it from her, then went to grab her hand, but she quickly sidestepped me, her eyes immediately growing wide with excitement at the sight of all the piled up brand new toys in the corner.

_Great._

I shook my head. "No, Isabella. You can play with your new toys in the morning. It's time for bed now," I reminded her.

She gasped at the apparent unfairness of it all and stomped her foot. "But, Edwaaard…" she trailed off, a hint of desperation in her voice.

"No."

She furrowed her brow. "But, Edwaaard…" she repeated.

"No, Isabella."

She pointed to a hula-hoop with pink sparkles and tried again, adding some _umph_ to her stomp this time. "But, Ed_waaaaaar_d….!"

I quickly reached around her small form and swatted her ass. "That's enough, Isabella."

I did not have time for a tantrum tonight. I had to hunt, which meant I had to hurry up with this tucking in process, so that I could haul ass outta here as soon as possible.

The swat started her crying, which started her sniffling, which started her pouting.

It was a vicious cycle.

As she sniffled and pouted at me, she gazed up at me with sad, chocolate eyes. Eyes that attempted to suck me into their pooling depths, effectively bending me to her will.

I gritted my teeth and resisted her charms like a pro. "_Rules_, Isabella," I reminded her. "You need to listen when I tell you that it's bedtime. I shouldn't have to repeat myself all the goddamn time, young lady. Get. In. Bed. _Now,_" I commanded with another swat.

She let out another little cry as she quickly turned and crawled up onto the large king size bed. "Wanna play with my toooys…" she trailed off with a little sniffle, sitting up by the headboard now.

I nodded in understanding and softened my features, then joined her on the bed. "I know angel, and you can play with them in the morning, I promise. But right now it's late, and I know that you're tired. You need to sleep, baby," I told her, lifting her to sit on my lap, and running the first brush stroke through her shoulder length hair.

She nodded and snuggled herself back into my chest, turning her attention to the movie playing on the flat screen. I brushed her hair while she quieted her barely there cries, rubbing her tired eyes with a tiny fist and sniffling every so often.

I was both surprised and delighted to find that having shorter hair meant a shorter drying time. So after seven minutes of brushing, her hair was dry enough for her to lay down and go to sleep, so I set the brush down on the nightstand and focused on lulling my little angel into unconsciousness.

After a minute, she tiredly sighed and slipped her thumb in her mouth, so I scooted forward a little bit, then laid us down on the bed. She slid off of my lap then, and onto the mattress, and latched herself onto me. She stayed tightly cuddled into my side while she laid her head down on my shoulder.

I turned off the bedside lamp, noting the late midnight hour, and lowered the volume on the TV until it was barely audible, wanting to set a dark and quiet atmosphere so that she could fall asleep faster.

I _really_ needed to go…like, now.

"Edward?" she mumbled sleepily.

I kissed the silky hair lining her temple and swallowed back some venom. "Yes, baby love?"

"Love you."

"I love you, too."

"Mm-hmm, b'cuz you're mine, huh?"

"Yes, I'm your's."

"But not Dassah's, huh?"

I started lightly trailing my fingertips along her side and tried to figure out how to avoid that question, and answer it at the same time. After a minute, I came up with, "I'm your's and you are mine. We belong to each other."

She subtly nodded against my shoulder and hummed in agreement. "Mm-hmm…"

I kissed her forehead.

"But…you're just mine, huh?" she pressed after a minute of silence.

I softly chuckled, amazed that she wasn't letting it go. "I'm your's, baby girl," I assured her again.

"And not Joey's, huh?"

I furrowed my brow. "Baby, Joey and I are best friends," I gently explained.

"Yah-huh, but you're just mine, huh?"

"Yes, angel…I'm your's."

"Mm-hmmm…" she softly hummed.

Silence.

"Edward?"

I sighed against the burn in my parched throat.

_Go to sleep._

"Yes?" I whispered.

"And you're just mine, but not Marie's, huh?

I rolled my eyes. "Go to sleep, Isabella."

"B-but, Edward-"

"Isabella," I started, cutting her off. "I am your's. I will _always_ be your's. Now go to sleep," I stated, my tone ringing with finality now.

Silence…

…more silence…

_Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep…_

"Edward?"

_Fuck my life._

"Isabella…" I trailed off in an even tone.

"Hm?"

"This had better be a very important question, or you're going to be in trouble. I have told you countless times to go to sleep. So think really long and hard about what you want to say, and if it's a question that can wait until the morning, then _don't_ ask it. Just be quiet and go to sleep," I instructed.

She sighed.

After forty two seconds of silence, she piped up again. "Edward?"

I clenched my eyes shut and gritted my teeth. "Yes…?"

She sniffled a little. "I love you," she said quietly. Apprehensively.

_Aw._

I sighed and softened my tone, hugging her to my side a little more. "I love you too, Isabella."

I was being a dick, that much was obvious.

I had just made my baby girl scared of telling me that she loved me.

_Doucher._

Apparently, being hungry, or in my case, _thirsty_, makes me cranky.

"Edward?"

I swallowed some more venom and resolved to be nicer. "Yes, angel?"

"Can I name my baby kitty Tinker Bell?" she asked curiously.

And just like that, my resolve was gone. Nonexistent. "_Isabella_, is that a question that could've waited until morning?" I pressed in a firm tone.

"Um, y-yesss…" she trailed off hesitantly.

"Do you _want_ me to be angry with you?" I asked through gritted teeth.

She whimpered a little. "No…"

"Go. To. Sleep," I commanded with a soft warning pat to her bottom.

She snuggled tighter into my side and sniffled in response. "Kay…" was her sad whisper.

After twelve long minutes, and with the help of my caressing fingertips, my little angel was fast asleep in my arms. I quickly maneuvered her _out_ of my arms though, much to my body's protests, and placed a soft pillow under her head to replace where my cool chest had been.

After I made sure the gold comforter was tucked tightly around her small form, and that her thumb was out of her mouth, I raced down the steps, my burning body becoming my driving force to leave my mate behind and go feed.

I passed by Emmett on the way out and yelled a quick, "Hey, bro!", before bolting through the front door, into the trees, and across the rushing river bend.

I was a man on a mission; I needed to hunt quickly and return to my mate quickly - _before_ she wakes. 

Five hours later proved that I sucked when it came to missions, because when I returned home, fully satiated and riddled with anxiety at being away from my mate for so long, I found that her heartbeat and breathing levels indicated that she _was_, in fact, awake.

_Damn it._

As I approached the front door, I paused my steps and listened to the voices and thoughts inside the mansion. Everyone appeared to be doing their own thing with my mate nowhere in sight, so I quickly entered my home, wondering if she was awake and up in our bedroom, all by herself.

That possibility became very plausible in my mind, since there were several shopping bags full of toys in our room, just _waiting_ to be played with, not to mention a furry little kitten to coo and cuddle.

When I stepped into the foyer, her scent drew me in instantly, and I immediately whipped my head around to the left in search of her.

The room fell silent as my eyes quickly zeroed in on her small, still form sitting on top the step's first landing in the stairwell.

Her posture appeared relaxed, but her body language and Jasper's talent told me differently.

She was upset.

She sat with her bare feet resting two stairs below her, and her elbows were relaxed on her naked knees. Her left palm covered her right fist, which was tightly clenched, and she casually held both hands out in front of her, eyeing her thumb and wrist with some intensity that I couldn't understand.

I needlessly cleared my throat then, the subtle sound causing her eyes to flick up towards mine.

Her pink lips pursed when she caught sight of me, and her gaze narrowed angrily, to which mine widened a bit in surprise.

_Why is she awake? Or, better yet, why the **fuck** is she angry?_

I slowly closed the door, never taking my eyes away from my mate's intent stare.

Eventually, I sighed into the quiet of the room, and she, apparently, took this as a sign to speak.

"You left…" Joey muttered quietly. Accusingly.

_Uhmm…_

I subtly nodded. "Sorry…I, uh…I had some things that I needed to take care of. I wanted to do it while you were sleeping," I offered.

Joey scoffed at my explanation, slowly shaking his head in disbelief, and stood from his spot on the staircase, then walked back upstairs to our bedroom.

But not before sending one last glare my way.

I sighed.

_Well, damn._

"He missed you," Carlisle said then, adding in his two-sense from his spot on the couch.

I continued to stare at the spot my mate had occupied just seconds before. "Yeah…yeah, I missed him, too," I whispered with a little nod.

Everyone's voices began to fade into the backround as I steeled my resolve to go upstairs and cheer up my brand new little buddy.

My mate.

I would full fill the promise that I had made to him earlier….we would build stuff with Legos and race cars around the room until he got all tuckered out, because I had missed him too.

_I had missed him too._

* * *

A/N:

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	3. Backround Noise

A/N:

You all wanted some Bella, so here ya go, kids...

It's story time!

~ ENJOY ~

* * *

BPOV

Mommy brushes my hair until all the golden brown strands are placed in pigtails atop my head with pink bows that match the sundress she put me in today. Daddy says he's taking me to the fair. I've never been to a place called a 'fair' before, and I want Mommy to come too…but she won't. No matter how many times I ask if she'll come, the answer is always the same.  
"No, sunshine, Mommy's not feeling well…you go have fun with Daddy."  
"Let's go, pumpkin!" Daddy's voice bellows from downstairs.  
I run as fast as my little legs will carry me, and when I finally make it down all the big steps, I'm greeted with Daddy's bright smile as he picks me up in his big, warm embrace.  
"What a pretty-lookin pumpkin!" he proclaims.  
I kiss his cheek. "Daddy, let's go!" my toddler voice squeaks.

_*BEEP*…Bella…Bella, can *BEEP* you hear me?…Bella… *BEEP*_

Daddy takes my hand as we walk onto the fairgrounds. It looks like it's right in the middle of town. They've blocked off Main Street and set a Ferris wheel right in front of Jones Drug Store. I can see it taking people high up in the air, then down again, round and round. It's noisy with music and screaming and laughing. It looks magical…this fairy wheel, with all it's blinking lights.

_*BEEP*…Please, sweetheart…open your eyes…*BEEP*…Carlisle, what's wrong *BEEP* with her?…My Bella…*BEEP*_

"Daddy, look!" I exclaim as I point to some pretty pink stuff I'd never seen before. "Fluffy pink clouds…" I murmur in amazement.  
He chuckles. "Ahh, _that_, Belly Bean, is what you call cotton candy," he informs me in a light tone.  
"Can we have some?" I squeak from my position on top his shoulders.  
I'm so high when I'm up on my daddy's shoulders. He's big, and when Daddy holds me, I'm big too.  
"We sure can, princess," he tells me as he dismounts my tiny body from his and places me on the ground.  
We walk hand in hand to the cotton candy seller lady, and Daddy gets me my very own bag of it, while he gets one for himself. I must be turning into a big girl if he thinks I can have my own bag. The pink stuff is fluffy and sticky and makes me smile. It turns my lips and Daddy's tongue pink. We laugh at each other.

_*BEEP*…Why won't she respond?…*BEEP*…Bella, dear…open your eyes *BEEP*…*growl* Carlisle, it's not fucking working! *BEEP*…Patience…*BEEP*_

"Hey, look there, Bella!" Daddy says.  
I turn my head in the direction of his pointing finger, but see nothing of interest. Just legs walking, bumping through the street. The whole town must be here.  
"Can't see, Daddy! What? What? Is it sumthin pretty?" I chirp hopefully.  
"Come on," he says. "Let's get closer. It's snakes, Belly. Want to see some snakes? They are beautiful creatures."  
"Pretty?"  
"Yes."  
"Kay, let's go!" I agree, bouncing excitedly.  
Daddy grabs my hand and pulls me through the crowd. We stop at a wooden circle fence that someone has put up right in the middle of the road. Lots of people are pressed up close to the fence, looking at something. I peek through the holes and boost myself up onto my tippy toes so that I can see, too.  
I stare, fascinated, at the dark man with no shirt. He's standing in the middle of the circle, and there are snakes winding in and out around him, like hair braiding and unbraiding. It's hypnotizing. He holds a black snake that's just about as tall as him…it thrusts it's tongue out at him and they stare at each other. The snakes exploring the paved street inside of the fence have a smiling look about them, but they visibly throb with either excitement, or fear, as the man stands among them and the people continue to press themselves closer.

_*BEEP*…It's been hours, Carlisle…*BEEP*…She's dehydrated, son…*BEEP*…Bella, baby, look at me…just *BEEP* open your eyes…please *BEEP*_

It's hard to breathe. The air is thick and humid with the snake smells and all the sweaty grown ups. Most of the snakes are plain brown or black, but one is the color of Mommy's hair; brown and golden. I decide that I like that one. I miss Mommy…wish she would have come to this fair place with me. I notice that one has orange faces on it's back like a scary jack-o-lantern on Halloween. He winds his body around a long brown snake and the two of them curl under and over each other, rolling in a special snake dance. The snakes' skin glistens in the bright sunlight. I see when a little green snake slithers quickly over a pile of bigger snakes. He comes over to me, right below me, where I am peeking through the fence, and looks up at me. He wants out, I can feel it. Where's his Mommy? Probably stayed home, just like mine did…poor little green snake baby. We are friends now; we have shared a look and we miss our mommies.

_*BEEP*…Thirty four hours…not uncommon…*BEEP*…I don't give a fuck about what's common! *BEEP*…Just bring her back…to me…*BEEP*…Bella, can you hear *BEEP* me?…_

People talk louder now, moving in their places and watching the man in the ring. I look, too. The snake winds around the man's arms and across his neck. Like my new green friend, the black snake watches me, showing off his exotic white markings. Why doesn't the snake bite that man? I'll ask Daddy. He knows everything.

_*BEEP*…Bag of fluids…IV…*BEEP*…Needs to eat something, son…*BEEP*…We will monitor it's progress…*BEEP*…I don't understand…What the fuck…*BEEP*…Why won't she just respond?…*BEEP*…Bella, I love you…*BEEP*_

A hand pats me. Daddy? I turn around and look up to an unfamiliar face. The man smiles. He only has a few teeth and he smells bad…like my cousin's dirty diaper. I move over, around the fence, wanting my Daddy. My green friend follows, his slithers match my tiny footsteps. Where is Daddy? Standing taller on my tippy toes and hopping a bit, I search the faces along the fence for my Daddy's face. All of the eyes on the unfamiliar faces watch the snakes, and all of the mouths talk and laugh, making too much noise.

_*BEEP*…I'm staying with her…That's *BEEP* fine…I have to work my rounds…*BEEP*…Complete my shift here at the hospital…*BEEP*…Be back in an hour…Check on *BEEP* her…She'll be alright, son…*BEEP*…You don't know that…Baby, please…Please *BEEP* open your eyes…_

Rubbing. The man is close again. Behind me, rubbing my bottom. I want my Daddy. I don't like this smiling man. Again, I push my way around the fence. The snakes hiss and thrust their tongues at all the people. Now I smell the dirty-diaper man behind me. He has squatted down. His face is near my small shoulder, resting there. He is so close. And his hand is on me…rubbing me under my sundress, through my big girl panties. Mommy put me in panties today because I can use the potty all by myself now, like a big girl. But I suddenly miss my diaper. The man's finger is probing now…darting around like the snakes, around and around. I'm going to throw up.

_*BEEP*…Bella, I love you…*BEEP*_

There's Daddy, across the ring.  
"Daddy! Daddy!" I shout at the top of my lungs.  
The man moves away. Daddy comes to me and takes my hand. He's with a friend from work. I recognize the man with the light skin, pinkish eyes, and white blonde hair. He's really nice. His name is Casper, or at least he lets me call him that, and Daddy says that he's albino, but I know he's fibbing. Albinos are dinosaurs.  
"Did you like the snakes, pumpkin?" Daddy asks.  
I pout and look away from him. I am mad and sad at him. He disappeared and I was scared!  
He squats down to look at my face…just like the dirty-diaper man did. "Belly, what's wrong?"  
"Daddy, I don't feel good…ucky," I mumble, pouting.  
"Too much cotton candy, huh?"  
I don't respond, just stare down at the ground.  
"It's alright princess, me n' Casper will take you home."  
Casper scoops me up and puts me on his shoulders, escorting me to the parking lot where Daddy left his Police cruiser. After Casper buckles me into my car seat in the back, he reaches over and brushes his thumb across my cheek, wiping away a tear drop I didn't know had fallen.  
"Cheer up, darlin. Did you at least have a good time?"  
I numbly nod my head, not making eye contact.  
He sighs and leans his white head to the side a bit. "Tell you what…when Timmy and I come over this weekend, I'll have him bring Candyland and we'll all play! How's that sound?" he asks with a small smile.  
"Good…" I whisper.

_*BEEP*…Any response?…None…*BEEP*…Bella, please…Please, open *BEEP* those beautiful eyes for me, love…*BEEP*_

"Too much fair for Belly!" Daddy calls to Mommy as he carries me into the house and sets me down in the kitchen.  
Mommy looks down at me and smiles. "Go lie down, sunshine. I'll be up in a minute," she says.  
As I turn and make my way upstairs to my bedroom, I hear Mommy ask, "Was it the food?"  
"Cotton candy," Daddy replies.  
"She never knows when to stop eating that candy," Mommy comments.  
I end up in my bathroom, instead of my bedroom, vomiting, and heaving, and crying. I don't want Mommy to hear, but I cry and vomit some more. Mommy comes into the bathroom, concern etched all over her features. She rubs my back until I'm done puking into the toilet, then takes off my clothes and runs me a warm bath. She gently rubs the soft cloth over my skin, and I am relieved when she finally washes away the man's touch from my private areas. She gently lathers my hair and rinses it, careful not to let the soapies get in my eyes. When she's satisfied that I'm clean, she drains the tub and wraps me in a yellow fluffy towel, then lifts me up, cradling me to her chest. I lay my head on her shoulder. Her hair is falling out of her bun in soft, whispy curls. I want to play with them. Instead, I close my eyes. She sits down in the pink rocking chair in my bedroom and rocks and rocks and rocks. She hums my bedtime melody to me.

_*BEEP*…Let me by, Edward…*BEEP*…Mine…*BEEP*…I need to see if she's responsive…*BEEP*…to the light yet…I'll do it…*BEEP*…Edward…*growl*…*BEEP*…Let me do my job…She's *BEEP* mine, I'll do it…Edward…*BEEP*…__**Mine**__…_

"This is Paul," my Daddy says.  
I stare up at the tall man with broad shoulders. He smiles down at me.  
"Say hello, Isabella, don't just fucking stand there," he commands with a swat to my bottom.  
"Hi," I timidly whisper.  
His smile grows wider. "Oh, she's _is _a frightened little thing, isn't she?" he appraises me, looking at Daddy appreciatively.  
Daddy nods. "Mm-hmm, I've trained her well. Isabella, come," he demonstrates.  
I know better than to disobey a direct order, so I leave my space by the wall and walk over to Daddy. He's tall with short blonde hair. He's handsome, but mean. I don't like him. I love him.

_*FLASH* Pupils looks good, son…It's just a matter *BEEP* of time…Give her time…I want *BEEP* her __**now**__…Goddamn it…*BEEP*_

Daddy's holding a camera now…and we're in the dim basement. So that's what that flash was. I look to my right and see the man named Paul standing beside me. He is naked. I look down and notice that I am too.  
"Smile for Daddy…"  
Daddy's voice brings my attention back to the front and I stare up at him and his…camcorder. That's what I had learned to call it.  
"A camcorder makes videos and a camera takes freeze frames, you stupid fuck," Daddy had said once.  
Yes…this is a camcorder. It has a bright light and it's blinding me. I squint my eyes against it's invasive brightness.

_*FLASH* Just stay here and watch her…*BEEP*…I'm not going anywhere…*FLASH* …Pupils are responding, which is good…*BEEP*…Her lid seems to want to close on it's own…*BEEP*…Shouldn't be too much longer…Bella, dear *BEEP* can you hear me?…Bella…Baby, I *BEEP* need you…Just open those beautiful eyes, love…*BEEP*_

"You're such a sexy little girl…" Paul whispers in my ear.  
He's kneeling down beside me now, so that we are the same height. He's still a little bit taller than me, though. I furrow my brow at him and turn to face Daddy. He said that he would give me away if I told, but I didn't tell - I promise! Why is this Paul man here? Is he going to give me to him?  
"You better kiss him, Isabella. He wants a fucking kiss. Don't be rude to our guest," Daddy admonishes, ignoring my pleading look and focusing on his camcorder. He takes a puff of his cigarette. It smells funny.  
I turn back to face Paul and purse my lips, pressing mine against his. His big hand lightly trails down my bare back and eventually lands on my bottom. I'm quiet and still as he starts to massage my small, round flesh. His breathing starts to get heavier.  
"Get down on your knees and greet our guest properly," Daddy commands.  
I swallow audibly and whimper as my bare knees hit the cold, hard cement.  
"Yesss…" Paul hisses, putting his big hand behind my head and holding me in place. His hips start to move so that he is thrusting himself in and out of my small mouth.  
"She's got a pretty little mouth, doesn't she?" Daddy's lilting voice comments. "Fuckable."  
"Ohhh god…yes," Paul moans.  
"Let me get a close up of this shit," Daddy distractedly murmurs in the back round then, his camcorder making a weird clicking noise.

_*BEEP*…Thirty seven hours now…Carlisle, isn't there something *BEEP* you can give her?…I've already given her one *BEEP* bag of fluids…She needs one more…Other *BEEP* than that, there's nothing…She has to wake *BEEP* on her own…That's bullshit!…I know it's hard, son…*BEEP*…You don't know anything…_

"Pay me another fifty and I'll let you tie her to the bedpost," Daddy says.  
We're in my bedroom now, with a man that I recognize as Earl. He lives down the street. My mother talks to him. He mows our lawn.  
"What'll she do for a hundred?" Earl asks, his beady little eyes never leaving my wide ones.  
I'm naked and standing in the middle of the room. My bottom burns and stings…it's red. Daddy let Earl spank me. But I don't know what I did wrong.  
"Hmmm…" Daddy seems to contemplate this.  
Earl steps forward and grabs my arm, turning me around so that he can admire my red, welted bottom. He rubs the tender skin and moans, but Daddy's voice cuts the gruff sound short. "You want to fuck her ass, but you can't…you can't afford it," Daddy states, getting angry.  
Earl huffs, getting angry himself. "How. Much." he asks, landing another swat to my already sore bottom.  
I cry out and the sound causes Daddy to shoot up out of his chair. He comes over to me and squats down, eye level with me now, and stares piercingly into my pained eyes.  
"Do you want purity?" he whispers menacingly.  
I can taste his cologne and breath on my tongue. I want him to hold me. That's what daddies do, right? Why won't he hold me?  
I shake my head. "No…" I say through a quiet sob.  
"Then shut the fuck up." He points to the purple canopy bed with unicorns on it. My bed. "Lay down on the bed and be still while Earl tastes you," he demands, his voice still a threatening whisper. "Your kike cunt needs training, Isabella. You will lay there quietly and you will _like _it, do you understand me?"  
I nod and crawl up onto the bed, missing my mom, and wondering where she is…when she's going to be home. I turn around just in time to see Earl handing Daddy a wad of cash.  
Daddy squints one ice blue eye and holds the camcorder eyepiece up to his other. "Isabella, spread your legs."  
I squeeze my eyes shut and slowly spread them to the ominous sound of Earl's big boots clunking forward, coming closer to my bed.  
Where's Mommy? I want my Mommy.

_*BEEP*…Carlisle…*BEEP*…What…what's happening? *BEEP*…Bella, sweetheart, breathe…*BEEP*…Breathe, Bella…*BEEP* Goddamn it, Bella, __**breathe**__!…*BEEP*…*BEEP*…*BEEP*_

My eyes shoot open, and almost immediately, the tight burning feeling in my chest begins to slowly dissipate as I start taking deep, even breaths.

_What the… What… Where am I?_

I furrow my brow and look around the room, groggy in my somewhat still sleepy, hazy state. I immediately notice the needle protruding out of my hand. I follow the cord attached to it with my eyes, and find that it's been hooked up to a bag full of IV fluids.

_What the hell?_

"Bella!" Edward's voice exclaimed out of nowhere.

I jump, slightly startled, and look towards the voice. He's sitting in the lounge chair beside my bed. I look at the beautiful vampire before me, slightly dazed and confused. Just a second ago, I had been in the big house in my old bedroom…with Jim.

"Baby girl…" he coos, leaning forward to cup my face in his big, cold hands. "I missed you," he whispers, his forehead pressed lightly against mine.

"Wh…what happened?" I croak, my voice cracking and my throat dry.

He stares at me, concerned, while slowly loosening his grip on my face and backing his own away so that we can stare at each other properly. "Bella, what do you remember?"

His voice is somewhat distorted. My brain comprehends what he said a second later, and I close my eyes, trying to block out the random flashbacks that had been playing through my mind relentlessly. I realize now that that is what they were. They were flashbacks.

I concentrate really hard and try to remember the last substantial thing that I had been aware of. "Um, my dad…" I started. "Uh, Charlie. He was in our room, accusing me of murdering a man in an alleyway. But I didn't. Marie did," I stated quietly.

He slowly nods. "Bella, that was Thursday. Today is Sunday," he informs me, his tone gentle, yet somewhat apprehensive.

I subtly nod. "Okay…"

Staring at him, I realize that I am _really _tired. I want to sleep some more. I close my eyes, loving the sound of that, but they pop right back open to the loud creaking sound of a door being opened. I turn my head and see Carlisle walking into the room. The hospital room.

_Wait, I'm in a hospital?_

I groan, irritated all of a sudden.

_Great._

"Bella, you're awake," he proclaims with a warm smile, stating the obvious.

_No shit._

"Yeah…" I whisper, then clear my throat.

"Here, love," Edward says in offering, holding a cup of ice water out to me.

I take it from him. "Thanks," I whisper back and greedily suck down the cold clear liquid.

"She's drinking…that's a good thing," Carlisle comments, clearly talking to the vampire by my side.

Edward sighs softly in relief, his eyes never leaving my face. "I know," he responds with a small smile.

Their voices soon become dull murmuring noises in the back round and I turn on my side, trying my best to ignore them. I stare at the plain white wall, feeling somewhat nauseated. They say that I need to eat, but I don't want to.

I don't want to think. I don't want to be awake. I don't want to be aware. I don't want to hear anymore about how I woke up late on Friday morning in a comatose and incoherent state. How I was fine earlier that day; in fact, I had played remote control cars and built Legos with Edward for two whole hours…or, _Joey _did, for that matter, and I had eventually fallen back asleep, but had never _really _woken up until just now.

I can hear Joey in my head. His voice is just a whisper, but it's there and it's familiar and I can hear it. I allow myself a small smile. I'd rather listen to him than this crap any day.

Carlisle says that they brought me here, to the hospital, to monitor my vital signs and give me a bag of IV fluids to prevent dehydration. And, okay…I get that I may have needed the fluids, but my vital signs? Come on…they are _vampires_. They can monitor that shit in no time, with no trouble at all, just by listening to me with their super freaky vampire hearing. Edward has always been dead on with my heartbeat, breathing levels, _and _blood pressure.

_So what the fuck's the deal?_

I want to go home. I don't want to be here. I am mad at Carlisle. I don't even want to look at him and his stupid, perfect, holier-than-thou face. He showed my father Isabella's drawings and her writing papers. He left me. He allowed his stupid fucking coven to leave me, too. He says that he's the Sire of it all, but I don't believe that shit. They are all liars, and if he really was 'in charge', like he says he is, then he would've put his vampire Sire fucking foot down, and he never would've allowed his coven to abandon the involved human girl overnight, thus leaving her unprotected. He says that he had no control over it. I say that he's full of shit.

I run my fingers through my hair as I feel Edward's cold hard body scoot into the bed behind me. He wants to cuddle. Or spoon. Or whatever. He wraps his arm around my thin waist…molding my warm body tightly to his own. My head is laying just below his chin…my ass is pressed up against his lower abdomen, and my feet tangle in between his legs, resting lightly on his shins. He tells me how beautiful I am. That he loves me. I can't bring myself to respond. I want to vomit. I feel nauseous and I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want to be aware of anything. I want to go back to my dark safe place…no one can hurt me there. I need Marie. I need Isabella. They will take over…they will live this life for me so that I don't have to.

Edward repeats that he loves me…says that I'm his life, his forever, his everything. He loves my other selves as well. I smile sardonically. He can love them and live with them, then, because I don't want to be around anymore.

The only thing that is here in this world for me is pain…the pain of my past and the pain of my present. I don't want to constantly worry about whether or not Edward is really going to stay, or if he'll really change me in the end. Marie can worry about that. She's the best at handling stressful situations that make her feel insecure. Isabella can give Edward what he needs, too…things that I can't. I don't want a daddy. I hate them. And right now, that's what Edward wants to be for me…a daddy. He wants to feed me, dress me, bathe me, and spank me. Isabella can full fill that need for him. I don't want to.

Edward takes my hand away from my hair and kisses it, then replaces my fingers with his own. His cool fingertips feel nice against my overheated skin. He points out the fact that I got a new haircut…or, that _Marie _did, anyway. He tells me that I'm beautiful again…and that he misses me. He whispers in my ear about Joey and a brand new two year old baby.

I am not sane. I have children living inside my head! I want to throw up. I think about the snakes that day at the fair…how my father had lied when I last saw him. I hadn't gone missing at the carnival when I was two - he had gone off to talk with one of his buddies from work, and my mother wasn't even there. He left me alone at that snake show. I hate him. I hate Jim. I hate my mother. I hate Carlisle. I hate Rosalie. I hate Alice. I hate Jasper. I hate Emmett. I hate Jacob. I hate Esme. I hate Edward. I love Edward. I need Edward. Edward left me…but he says that he loves me. Says that he left because he loves me.

Carlisle goes on to explain that my mind had shut down to the point to where I was nearly comatose, incoherent, and unresponsive. He says that the fact that my mind produced two alternates in the matter of three hours must have caused my mind to clam up, somehow…in a way, it needed time to process everything, I guess….make room for two more in there, so to speak.

Whatever. I don't care. If they are there, then they are there for a reason. They came to help me escape this cruel world and aid me in my quest of not dealing with this horror that is my life.

_So, welcome, friends. The more, the merrier, I say._

There's a rush of murmured voices inside my head and I try to ignore both them and Edward at the same time. I want my ears to suddenly stop working so that I don't have to hear anything anymore…just like when I'm in my dark safe place. I want to go back there. Right now. But Edward insists that I need to try and stay awake for him…he sees that my eyelids are drooping.

I sigh, not wanting to disappoint him, but not wanting to look at him either. I choose to fix my gaze on the wall instead, and soon, I learn from his hushed, soft words that I have a kitten now. She's fluffy and white, with light blue eyes, and Isabella and the one named Hadassah, are calling her Tinker Bell. Apparently, Edward has named the new one Hadassah, after my grandmother that has passed away. I'm not too sure how I feel about that.

Carlisle has left the room for now. Fucking good riddance. I don't want him around. I don't want anyone around. I am angry. And I am sad. But most of all, I am tired. Bone-tired. Dead-tired. I'm fucking exhausted. I want nothing more than to return to my blissful state of not existing. There's no pain…no flashbacks…no abandoning, overbearing vampires there, in my safe place.

_Isabella…Marie…or, whoever…_

**Yah-huh?**

**What's up, doll?**

_Do it… _I mentally whisper to them.

**Which one? **Marie asks.

I close my eyes, effectively cutting off my view of the boring white wall with the torn flower wallpaper.

_I don't care._

**I want my Edward, and I'ma get to go see him now, huh Bella?**

_Yeah… _I encourage her. _Come out and see him. He's yours._

**Yah-huh, he's mine **she agrees.

"…so worried, Bella. But after your IV is done, I'm taking you home, love. I promise. I never wanted to bring you here baby, but you weren't responding to anything at all, and you wouldn't even eat or drink-"

"Edward…" I rasp, cutting him off with a soft, tired sigh.

He hugs me to him and lightly kisses the sensitive skin behind my earlobe. I can feel goosebumps rise on my neck and cheek because of it.

But I don't want to feel.

"Yes, love?"

"I want to die."

* * *

A/N:

Fucking. Depressing. Right? Am I right? I'm sooo right.

And I know, it's short, but it's vital, sweets...trust me.

Read & Review!


	4. Come Back Home

A/N:

Just to clear up any confusion, the flashbacks from last chap only have Charlie in **one **of them, and it's the scene at the fair with 2yr old Bella. The other video/pimping scenes are all Jim.

Okay... * _drum roll_*

It's story time, kids!

~ENJOY~

* * *

EPOV

My whole world stopped when those words fell from her beautiful lips.

I unconsciously tightened my already snug hold on her small body. "What?" I choked out, barely able to find my voice.

I stuck my nose in her hair and inhaled the beauty of her aroma while she gave another tired little sigh, just reassuring myself that she _was_, in fact, _alive_.

"I'm falling apart, Edward…help me," was her small, whimpered plea.

I sighed into her neck and placed a cool, reassuring kiss there. "Baby, what do you need me to do?" I asked in her ear. "I'll make it better for you, I swear…just-" I was cut off by my own whimper this time.

"Hold me, Edward…just hold me together," she requested as she turned around in my arms and placed a soft kiss to my jaw. "Don't ever let me go," she whispered.

I nodded and relished in the warmth of her lips against my cold skin, telling myself that it was going to be okay. It had to be. She was here and she was awake and she was alive.

I kissed her forehead and rubbed her back while I reassured myself that she wasn't going to die. That was ridiculous. I wouldn't let her. She's under the constant supervision of me and my coven…we wouldn't _let _her hurt herself.

I ran my fingers through her silky locks as I reminded myself that she didn't exactly _say _that she wanted to kill herself…she said, "I want to die", and while I'm pretty sure those two statements are one in the same, she won't get a chance to do anything to accomplish that goal.

_I won't __**let **__her._

She will die when _I _say, and it will be by _my _bite alone, and nothing else.

I will have her for eternity.

"Edward?"

I allowed a small smile to grace my lips at the sound of my baby's soft voice and lightly traced the outline of her punctured skin, where the IV needle lay in her hand. "Yeah?"

"Rock-a-byes…" she softly requested.

I nodded and started a slow rocking motion with our bodies while I held her to me in the small hospital bed.

I couldn't wait until all the IV fluids were in her system so that I could take that wretched needle out of her delicate little hand and take her back home, where she belonged. I never wanted to bring her here, but I was desperate and panicking because she wouldn't respond to _anything_, not to mention eat or drink anything. The last time she ate was when I took Marie to Backyard Burger Thursday evening…and that was three days ago.

I kissed away the worry wrinkle that had formed on her smooth forehead and asked, "Are you hungry, baby love?"

She nodded. "Yah-huh, and Edward?"

"Yes?"

"Don't wanna be in a hopistol…" Isabella pouted, her eyes beginning to water. She nuzzled her face in my chest and fisted my shirt in her small hand, mumbling into it, "Wanna go home."

I gently ran the pad of my thumb under her left eye and caught a small teardrop, then kissed her little button nose. "I know, sweetie pie…we'll go home as soon as that bag is done," I told her, turning around a bit and pointing to the hooked half full bag of saline behind me.

Isabella flicked her chocolate eyes up to see what I was pointing at and subtly nodded. "S'almost done, huh?"

"Yeah…almost done," I breathed my assurance, hugging her to me some more.

Isabella hummed and squirmed a bit, trying in vain to press her body closer to mine, as well. When she took her face away from the nuzzle spot on my chest and looked up at me, she gave me a small smile.

I smiled back and cupped her soft rosy cheek in my hand. "You're so pretty…" I murmured to her.

Isabella giggled and I loved the sound of it, letting it relieve some of the anxiety that had been plaguing my body since Friday afternoon. She reached her IV hand up into my hair then, but I quickly took it in my own and kissed her palm, reminding her to be careful because the needle was in that hand.

She looked at it curiously. "Edward?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't like needles…" she told me with worried eyes.

_Aw._

I subtly nodded. "I know, angel…it can come out in a little bit," I assured her.

She nodded and reached her hand back up, doing her best to be 'careful' this time. I smiled at the adorably concentrated look on her face.

Her warm fingertips traveled through my bronze hair then, trailing along my scalp and twisting the wild locks around, playing with it.

After a minute, she asked in her child-like voice, "Edward, you sad?"

I felt my brow furrow. "Why would you think that, baby love?

Chocolate met gold as she said, "B'cuz you have sad eyes…"

I stared into her warm chocolate depths, amazed at how perceptive my little girl could be sometimes.

Yes, I _was _sad. I was _incredibly _sad…my mate had just said that she wanted to die not ten minutes ago, and regardless of whether that would happen or not, it was still upsetting to know that she had come to that point…the point of being so ready to just give up. Of being suicidal.

But I didn't want Isabella to worry about me. That wasn't her job; I take care of her, not the other way around.

"I'll be okay, sweetness," I assured in a soft voice, not wanting to confirm or deny her correct assumption of my emotions.

Isabella stared at me for a few more seconds, seeming to contemplate something, before she slowly brought her face closer to mine and proceeded to give me a gentle Eskimo kiss with her warm little button nose.

I smiled and my dead heart melted at how adorably sweet she could be sometimes.

_So precious._

When she was done rubbing noses with me, she laid her head back down in the crook of my shoulder and kept her gaze fixed on mine as she started to sing to me. Her warm little fingers never stopped their descent in my hair, and she kept gently brushing the bronze locks away and out of my eyes.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshiiine…you make me happyyy when skies are graaay…you'll never know deeear how much I love youuu…please don't taaake my sunshine awaaay," she softly sang, smiling up at me the whole time.

I couldn't keep the grin off my face as I kissed her smooth forehead and murmured an, "I love you," against it.

She softly giggled. "Love you, too."

I lightly pressed my forehead against hers and hugged her to me some more. "You're so precious," I told her, trailing my fingertips along her spine.

After a minute, she fractionally moved her head back from mine so she could look into my eyes. "All better?" she questioned with raised eyebrows.

I nodded and smiled for her, letting her know that she had successfully cheered me up. "Yes angel, I'm all better…" I assured her, kissing her forehead again, and running my fingers through her short, silky strands.

Carlisle came into the room then, his thoughts urgent and informing me to give my mate her antidepressant _as soon _as I got her home from the hospital this afternoon. He had heard the conversation between me and my Bella a minute ago, and he was telling me that her feelings of depression and hopelessness were quite normal, especially now since she had missed three doses of her daily medicine.

Apparently, we needed to monitor the affects of that Prozac, now more than ever.

I subtly nodded to him, letting him know that I had heard him, and that I understood.

I was even more anxious now to get her home now. Maybe she wouldn't be so sad with that damn pill in her? I couldn't wait to find out.

I noticed how Isabella's eyes started to droop while Carlisle quietly moved around the room to check all the machines, but I didn't want her going back to sleep, so I decided to sit her up and move us to the lounge chair beside the bed.

I didn't know if she had actually slept peacefully in the past two and a half days, but she wasn't responsive to anything, that was for damn sure. Her heart rate and breathing levels had only indicated to me that she was asleep a few times while we were here. Other than that, her vitals told me that she was awake and there were countless times that her eyes would constantly dance and move behind their closed lids. She would breathe heavily and whimper at certain times, and I just knew that she was seeing terrible things through her mind's eye…having nightmares. It was heart wrenching every time I tried to comfort her because she'd be oblivious to my touch.

I situated Isabella so that she was sitting on my lap with her back pressed up against my chest. She sniffled and pouted while she sat there, cranky all of a sudden because I wouldn't let her sleep.

"Edward?"

"Yes?"

She whimpered a little while I clicked on the TV and reached inside the plastic Walmart bag by my side, wanting to retrieve a grape ring pop to placate my agitated little girl. I had haphazardly packed this bag on Friday afternoon before we came up here, and I had placed on the side table, ready fore use at a moment's notice.

"S'nap tiiime. I got my jammies on, and everythiiing…" she pointed out in a whine, gesturing to the formfitting black gown I had put her in Thursday evening after her bath.

It was so incredibly skin tight, hugging her hourglass curves, and highlighting the fact that she was very thin and so very small. The tiny shoulder straps left her arms bare to my gentle fingertips and I took advantage of that fact, tracing her little elbow with my index finger.

"You need to stay awake and get dressed when we get home, baby girl," I told her.

"Wanna go home nooow…" she whined.

I kissed her temple while I quickly unwrapped the candy and slipped it on her little thumb. "I know, angel…" I assured her, wrapping my arm around her waist and clicking the remote button with my free hand, trying to find the damn cartoon channel. "We can in a little bit. I think the bag's almost done, sweetheart."

She sniffled and looked up at the saline bag. "Baggyyy, hurry up!" she demanded of it.

I chuckled into her silky hair. "Spongebob is on, baby," I informed her, pointing to the TV hanging from the wall in the corner near the ceiling.

She quickly turned her attention to the TV and mumbled along with the opening credits. "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea…Spongebob square pants…" she sang as she slowly brought the ring pop up to her softly puckered lips.

Carlisle came up to our side then, and started to gently place a black cuff around Isabella's bare bicep to take her blood pressure. She turned her attention away from Spongebob and focused on him, watching him with guarded eyes as he gave her a warm smile and pressed the button on the machine to start the cuff-tightening process.

When she started to cry at the tight, pinching feeling on her arm, I shushed her and tucked her into my side, assuring her it would be over in a few seconds.

"Edward, owwwieee…" she cried, sniffling and glaring at my father.

I subtly nodded and kissed her forehead. "Shhh, I know…"

She reached for the black cuff, obviously wanting it off, but I grabbed her wrist, knowing that if she took it off, then we'd just have to do this process all over again. "No…" I trailed off in a firm, but gentle tone.

A squeaked "owwie" was her only reply before the cuff started to instantly deflate and relieve the pressure on my baby's sensitive little arm.

I released her wrist and she immediately tore at the velcro cuff, then threw it at my father. "You're a _meanie_. I hate you," she told him, her eyes still watery, but her cries stopped.

I lightly patted her thigh in warning. "Isabella…"

She sniffled and kept her glaring stare on Carlisle, ignoring me and daring him to respond.

He sighed. "I apologize dear. I didn't do that to hurt you," he assured her.

"Oh, but it did - it _did _hurt me," she quickly shot back, her anger beginning to shine through. "And you _like _that, don't you? Is your dick hard?" she asked all of a sudden.

I tightened my hold around her waist and scolded her with a harsh, "Stop it," but she continued to ignore me.

"You _people_," she spat with disdain, looking at him in disgust, scrunched up nose and all, "…you _stupid_, yellow-haired people, you _like _hurting me, and I _hate _you," she declared through a delicately clenched jaw.

"Isabella, that's enough," I told her.

She turned to face me then. "You _let _him hurt me," she accused, her angry eyes portraying a hint of hurt and betrayal.

I was taken aback that she had come to that particular conclusion, just because of a simple blood-pressure monitoring. "Isabella, he took your _blood pressure_, he didn't _abuse _you," I pointed out before adding, "And I didn't allow anything inappropriate to happen. I never have and I never will."

We stared into each other's eyes for a minute, and after she seemed satisfied with my assurance, she nodded and softened her features, bringing her purple candy back up to her mouth and relaxing against my chest once more.

I subtly shook my head. "You need to calm down, baby girl…you're just cranky and tired. Haven't you ever had your blood pressure taken before?" I asked, starting to rock her a bit in a placating gesture.

She nodded in response. "Yah-huh, but it still hurt, though," she indignantly mumbled around her ring pop.

I sighed at my temperamental little girl and kissed her the side of her little ear. "I'm sorry that it hurt you angel, but you need to apologize to Carlisle right now for being rude to him," I told her.

She narrowed her eyes at Spongebob, her glaring gaze never leaving the brightly lit screen. "Sorry," she clipped in a hard voice, not sounding sorry at all.

I rolled my eyes and gave Carlisle an apologetic look, but he wasn't paying attention to me. He was busy staring at Isabella's side profile and wondering if she would ever get over her fear of blonde men so that she could begin to warm up to him.

I knew that she probably wouldn't, but we could still hope. What we _couldn't _do though, was force it. It just wasn't possible to force something like trust, and my baby girl was extremely guarded and very fragile, and we had to treat her as such…let her come out of her shell on her own, so to speak.

I sighed, letting Isabella's slight shiver bring me out of my reverie, and reached inside the Walmart bag for her pink blankie. I wrapped it around the front of us while I continued to rock her and stole another glance at the IV bag above my head, wanting to know when I could take her home and take care of a few things.

I had to feed her, bathe her, dress her, and give her that damn Prozac pill. I had been so focused on my Bella and wanting her to just wake up from whatever the hell she was zoning out on, that I hadn't been thinking of the possibility that she could wake up in a depressed, withdrawn state because she hadn't been taking that antidepressant regularly.

Isabella kept her fist pressed to her mouth, insistently sucking on the hard candy attached to the plastic surface on the ring around her thumb, but then pulled it out a second later. "Edward?"

"Hmm?"

"My baby kitty? My Tinker Bell?" she inquired curiously, pointedly ignoring my Sire, who was still standing off to the side, silently observing me and my mate.

I nodded. "She's at home, sweetie. She's fine," I assured her.

"Edward?"

I lightly traced hearts and circles on her sore bicep and tiny elbow. "Hmm…"

"But _I'm _in charge… S'my re…uhhh, responsss…responda…um," she sighed then, clearly frustrated and having trouble remembering the word I taught her.

"Responsibility…" I gently coaxed.

She immediately nodded. "Mm-hmm, yah-huh…respondability," she chirped, mispronouncing the word, "and _I'm _sposta feed her," she reminded me.

I chuckled. "Well, angel love, you know…you've been sick and in the hospital for a few days, so everyone back home has been taking care of that responsibility for you," I informed her.

"Who?" she squeaked with furrowed brows. "And are they nice to my baby kitty Tinker Bell?"

I nodded, never stopping my slow rocking pace. "Mm-hmm…they are being _very _nice to Tinker Bell. Esme has been feeding her, Alice has been playing with her, and Emmett has been making sure her potty is all clean," I told her, leaving out the part about the kitten being very wary of my coven.

Rosalie had called up here, to my Bella's hospital room, and informed me of the kitten's discomfort Friday evening…it seemed that the animal only wanted to hide under the bed, or stay snuggled up on my Bella's pillow, but I assured her that the kitten is very young, and it should grow used to our presence sooner or later. It probably just missed the soft warm body of my Bella to cuddle up to. I had asked her if the kitten was a temptation at all, already knowing the answer, but she had just simply scoffed at me, telling me that if they could handle my human mate living under the same roof, then surely they could handle a tiny, domesticated feline.

"Emmy's home?" she asked then.

"Yes."

"But he's not gonna hurt me, huh…"

I smiled and kissed her temple reassuringly. "That's right, angel…Emmy won't hurt you. Nobody will."

"The ugly girl with the yellow hair will," she immediately countered.

"No she won't," I insisted in a slightly hardened voice. "And if she tries again, then they will leave again, or we will," I stated with finality.

"Move and live all by ourselves, huh Edward…just us, only you and me, b'cuz you're mine, huh Edward?"

I nodded, realizing that she didn't seem opposed to that idea at all. "Yes."

"Kay."

The Sponge bob song sounded then, signifying that the show was over, and Isabella started pouting and kicking her legs out again…whining some more about how she wanted to go home. I sighed and Carlisle and I both noted that the bag was almost empty just as another episode of Sponge bob started back up, effectively quieting Isabella's cries and saving me from having to deal with an I'm-tired-and-I'm-mad-and-I'm-bored temper tantrum.

"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea…Sponge bob square pants…" she sang, before adding, "Edward, sing!"

_Oh my god._

"Then drop on the deck and flop like a fish…Sponge bob square pants…" I mumbled along.

She giggled and I couldn't help but to smile, glad that me muttering a few lines from that ridiculous song could incite the beautiful sound coming from her lips. My favorite sound.

"Edward, toys?" she chirped when a commercial came on.

I nodded and reached from the Walmart bag again. She watched as I lifted it up and plopped it down on our blanket-covered lap. I decided to just let her explore what I had packed in there, so she went ahead and moved around a pacifier, a Transformers toy, a My Little Pony, a Nintendo DS, a soft cuddle-bear, and a few lollipops, before she finally reached for a small Bratz doll and the little pink comb that had come with it. She handed me the doll, then dropped the bag back down on the ground before she took the doll from me and proceeded to brush it's hair in silence.

"Gotta brush her hair b'cuz it's bedtime soon, huh Edward?" she asked when her show came back on.

I nodded, watching her slow movements and glancing up at her tired eyes.

_Okay, maybe she can take a nap after I get her home, and fed, and all cleaned up. _

"Mm-hmm…"

"Son?" Carlisle called out then, getting my attention. I turned my head towards him and saw that he was nodding pointedly towards the saline bag. "I believe we can go ahead and take the IV out now…she needs to go home and eat and get some rest," he told me.

I nodded to him and turned back to my little girl. "Alright angel, the baggy is done, so the needle gets to come out now," I told her.

She nodded distractedly. "Kay."

"Okay, give me your dolly so I can put her back with the other toys. Carlisle needs to see your hand."

She handed me the doll and the tiny brush, so I quickly slipped both items back in the Walmart bag.

"Edward?"

"Hmmm?"

"Dolly's back in the bag with her friends now, huh…"

I nodded and took her hand in my own, bringing it to my lips for a quick kiss. "Yes sweetheart, and she can stay in there until we get home," I told her, letting her know that playtime was over for now.

She nodded. "Kay."

I lightly traced the skin close to her wrist, where the needle lay. "I don't think this is gonna hurt baby, but how about you watch your Sponge bob and Patrick while Carlisle makes the ucky needle go away," I suggested, trying to keep my tone light.

She nodded to me, then shot a quick warning glare Carlisle's way before she focused back on the TV.

I held my breath and took her wrist in a gentle but firm grip while I used my free hand to lightly caress her tummy and hug her to me.

Carlisle approached her side and peeled the tape from her hand's skin as gently as possible, ignoring the agitated "_mmm_" whining sound that came from Isabella's sealed lips. She furrowed her brow and looked away from her show to focus intently on what Carlisle was doing to her hand, but he remained oblivious to her scrutiny while he placed a small cotton ball on top of the puncture point where the inserted needle lay just underneath her skin.

"Isabella, dear…" he murmured, keeping his gaze trained on his work.

"Hm?"

"Can you count to three for me?" he asked.

"One… Two… Thr-_ahhh_," she exclaimed as he pulled the needle out before she could finish her counting assignment.

He immediately strapped a pink Barbie band-aid on top of the piece of cotton and placed the bloody needle in a plastic container, ready to take it out of this room, away from me, so that I could breathe again, any minute now. "Did that hurt?" he asked.

She furrowed her thin brow and slowly shook her head at him, to which he smiled. "Good. Well, I'll see you at home, dear. Eat something and get some rest," he told her. "Doctor's orders."

She squinted her eyes up at him and sucked on her bottom lip for a second, seeming to think about something. "Don't gotta listen to Doctor- orders, only Edward-orders…" she murmured defiantly.

He sighed and subtly shook his head while I laid my head back against the chair and rolled my eyes. "Right, well - they are Edward-orders, too. He's going to feed you and put you down for a nap when you get home," he clarified.

"Kay."

He straightened up, ready to leave the room and take that delicious needle with him. "Alright, goodbye Isabella. I'll see you later."

"Goodbye-bye."

0000000000

On the ride home, I stopped at Mcdonald's and got Isabella a happy meal, knowing that their chicken nuggets were her favorite. She happily chewed on her fries and sipped her coke while I hurried to make the drive home. I wanted to get her cleaned up and in bed, even though she wasn't all that dirty or anything…she just missed two nights of having a bath, and I knew that she wasn't comfortable because of it.

"Edward?"

"Hmm?" I hummed, pulling into the driveway.

"Gotta potty," she told me.

I looked at her, a bit surprised. Carlisle had told me that she probably wouldn't need to use the bathroom until sometime tonight. "Okay, well we're home, angel. Go ahead and go potty," I told her, turning off the engine and nodding towards the door inside the garage.

"Kay."

I grabbed the Walmart bag and Isabella's sandals out of the back seat, since she always insisted on going everywhere barefoot for some reason, and followed up the stairs after her.

I had built Joey's toy shelf and unpacked all of the toy bags Friday morning while he slept after the car racing session we had when I returned home from hunting, so all of the new toys were put away in their respective storage containers now. I went over to what I like to call 'the toy corner' by the window, which was next to 'the kitty corner', by the way, and unpacked the Walmart bag full of toys, one for each of my Bella's alternates.

When I was done with that, I placed the neon green pacifier and four lollipops on the desk, then tossed a squeaky blue mouse toy the fluffy white kitten perched on the bed, and waited for my girl to come out of the bathroom.

After a minute, I furrowed my brow and turned my head to stare at the wooden door that was separating me from my mate right now. It had been six minutes and she still hadn't come out. And I _knew _that she wasn't in there actually using the damn toilet anymore because _that _little process had taken all of eleven seconds. I know this because I'm a fucking vampire.

_What is she doing?_

I waited two more minutes, then stood from the bed and walked over to the bathroom door, knocking softly when I got there. "Honey, are you okay?" I asked, concern laced in my tone.

The only response I got was a soft sigh, so I slowly turned the door knob and announced that I was coming in. When I opened the door I saw why she hadn't come out of the bathroom yet. She was still sitting on the damn toilet. But she wasn't using it.

She was the picture of calm and casual, relaxed back against the toilet tank, with the hem of her short black gown up around her hips, and her black panties down around her dainty little ankles. She was subtly kicking her feet out to the rhythm of her own tune, and when she saw me, she smiled.

"Hi," she whispered.

I leaned up against the door frame and stared at my new two year old in slight confusion. "Hadassah…baby, what are you doing?"

"Sitting…"

"Why, though? Why are you still sitting on the potty?"

She subtly shrugged. "No potty paper…"

I sighed and walked over to her at this declaration. When I saw an empty roll beside her, I subtly growled in frustration and reached above her head into the cabinet for a new roll of Charmin. I put the plastic rod in the middle of the cardboard center and hooked it up to the dispenser for my ever-patient little girl. "There you go, baby girl," I told her, placing a soft kiss to her forehead. "Next time there's no paper, just yell for me and I'll come fix it."

"Kay," she whispered, then reached for the roll to rip a couple of squares off.

I turned my back to give her some privacy, and left the room with the reminder for her to flush and wash her hands when she was done.

While I waited for her in our bedroom, Emmett informed me from his spot in the living room that the kitten had found the roll of toilet paper yesterday afternoon and it had apparently taken it upon itself to make a toy out of it. It used it's front paws to drag all the paper from the roll, and then it proceeded to rip the paper squares up into little pieces with it's claws and carry different fragments out into the bedroom with it's mouth to set the pieces on it's bed, as well as ours, and Esme had cleaned up the mess when she came up to feed and water it last night.

I rolled my eyes and turned my gaze to the mischievous little ball of fluff on the floor. It meowed at me and pranced around on it's tiny paws, carrying the blue catnip toy in it's mouth.

"Hey Edward…" Marie trailed off as she came out of the bathroom with a weird looking jar and a small bag of something in her hand. "I need you to heat this up in the microwave for me," she told me, handing me the jar.

I furrowed my brow and stood from the bed, intently studying the jar in my hand.

GiGi Honey Wax.

_What the…_

I looked at Marie and saw that she was walking back towards the bathroom. When she hopped up on the marble counter and unzipped what looked to be a small make-up bag, I followed in after her.

"Marie, what are you doing?" I asked, holding the jar up for emphasis.

She took different looking strips of paper-like material out of the bag and a tiny tub of what looked like some type of lotion, along with a travel size bottle of baby powder. "Time to wax, Edward," she told me as she lifted a bare leg up onto the counter. "Look, feel…" she encouraged, lightly running her fingertips along her shin.

I looked, already knowing what she was talking about, but felt anyway. There were a few small hairs that were beginning to sprout on her skin. It was identical to the tiny, soft hairs that had begun to grow on her arms too.

"I don't shave, babe…I wax."

I nodded, already knowing that she didn't shave. I was the one that had made sure she didn't have a razor because I didn't want her to shave in the shower and risk an accident happening. A little knick could occur so easily, and it would turn into a disaster.

"What do you wax, love?"

"Legs, arms, pits, and puss," she told me with a little nod, picking up the bottle of powder and shaking it. "Come on, sexy…I'm ready. It's gotta be done every two weeks, and I'm a bit late; hence, these fuckin annoying little hairs. Go heat up the jar, honeybunnnz - thirty five seconds, please," she said, dismissing me from the room with a little wave of her hand.

"Alright," I muttered, then went downstairs to the kitchen and stuck the jar in the microwave.

While I waited the thirty five seconds for the jar to finish heating up, I heard the loud thumping sound of my speakers upstairs. Emmett quirked his eyebrow at me as Nine Inch Nails 'Closer' began to play. Loudly. I just shrugged at him as the microwave beeped at me.

Taking the heated jar out of the microwave, I went back upstairs to my love, only to find that she was sitting on the bed with the hem of her black nighty rolled up around her waist. Her bare legs were on full display and her panties were still on…I just didn't know _how long _they were going to stay on.

I placed the jar by her side on the nightstand and gestured to the stereo. "Closer?"

She nodded and grabbed the remote, pausing the music for a second. "Yeah, Edward, um, listen…this is something I usually do alone. Like, in private," she told me.

I furrowed my brow. "I'm not leaving-" I started before she cut me off with a little shake of her head.

She smirked. "Alright then…suit yourself," she said, clicking the loud music back on and grabbing the jar of stuff off the nightstand.

I watched as she applied the caramel colored substance to the skin along her shin bone and placed a strip of papery cloth on top of it. I furrowed my brow in confusion when she placed a rolled up blue wash cloth in her mouth and bit down on it, but her muffled scream a second later made perfect sense.

Waxing hurt, apparently.

I growled at the jar before I could stop myself.

Marie took the cloth out of her mouth and panted a little, trying to breath through the pain, I guess. "Still wanna stick around?" she asked over the music, rubbing a little bit of a white, creamy substance on the now reddened skin.

I just nodded and gently shoved her hand away so that I could rub the lotion on for her, hoping that my cool touch could provide some extra relief.

Marie took the popsicle stick-looking instrument and gathered some more wax onto it, then applied that wretched substance right next to where I had rubbed the lotion. She applied two strips this time, but forgot the cloth, so when she ripped the first strip, a string a profanities came out of mouth.

"HolymotheroffuuuuUCK!" she shouted, squeezing her eyes shut and panting heavily as a tear slipped through the corner of her eye.

_Aw, my poor-_

An ear-piercing scream ripped out of her throat then, completely interrupting my thought process as she relentlessly tore at that second strip.

_Fuck!_

I gasped as I felt the anxiety tighten in my chest. "Marie!" I yelled, leaning forward and enveloping her in my arms. "Baby, are you oka-" I started, but she cut me off.

"I'm not a baby, Edward," she told me, clenching her jaw shut and holding back a whimper. It came out anyway.

_Right. This is Marie, __**not **__Isabella._

I nodded. "I know that…I know you're not a baby, love. But are you okay?" I asked, concern etched all over my features.

She nodded and reached for that damn popsicle stick again.

_Oh no…_

And so it went on. She screamed and cried and bit down on that cloth while she applied hot wax to all her limbs and ripped the papery strips off with abandon. I held her when I could and wiped the tears away from her cheeks, doing my best to keep her vision clear while my stereo repeatedly pumped out "I wanna fuck you like an animal". Yes, she had put the song on repeat. Why? I have no fucking clue.

Now she was laying on her back with her arms raised above her head. Her red rimmed chocolate eyes were pleading with me to do this. She wanted me to wax her armpits for her. I shook my head, saying that I couldn't do it, like, four times already, but she kept insisting, saying that if I could spank her, then I could do this. She said that both actions intentionally caused her pain, whether I wanted them to or not, and that the only difference between this and a spanking, is that she _wanted _it to happen.

"Please, Edward?" she whispered.

_No, not that word…_

I was suddenly very angry. Why can't I ever resist her? My mate can be so goddamn persuasive with that one little word. Fuck me and fuck my life and fuck Marie for making me do this!

I clenched my jaw and applied a thin layer of warm wax to her sensitive skin. "Marie, I love you…" I assured her when a quiet part of the song came on.

She sighed at the warmth. "Love you, too…"

Once the weird paper was placed on top of both patches of wax, I balled up the wash cloth and gently placed it in her open, awaiting mouth. Her white teeth bit down on the blue fabric as I brushed her sweaty bangs away, and leaned forward to place a cool kiss to her jaw. "Just nod when you're ready," I whispered to the shell of her ear, so she could hear me over the song.

After a second, she nodded, so I ripped, and she screamed.

I ripped both the small patches at the same time, wanting it to be over as soon as possible, but my efforts didn't lessen her pain at all, apparently. I immediately applied the cool, creamy lotion to her skin, wanting to relieve her discomfort as soon as possible.

Seventeen seconds later, her breathing had calmed and she had lowered her arms back down to her sides. When she sat up, a tear spilled out of her eye and I wiped it away for her. She sniffled a little and went for the waistband of her panties, but I grabbed her wrists and stopped her.

"No."

_Mine._

She rolled her eyes. "Edward, I always do my-"

"Not this time," I told her with a shake of my head.

She cocked her head to the side a bit and asked in a soft voice, "Why?"

I let go of her wrists and grabbed the stereo remote to shut the music off. Once the room was enveloped in a deafening silence, I gently cupped her sex through her panties, feeling ridiculously protective of this part of her right now, and said, "Because this is mine, Marie, and I don't want you hurting it."

Her breath rushed out of her lungs and that's when I felt it. Her panties were slightly damp. I furrowed my brow and inhaled deeply through my nose, tasting the scent surrounding the room, only to find that it was permeated with the tang of my mate's arousal.

_What the hell?_

This was the first time I was noticing it because I hadn't been breathing before. The sounds of my mate's distress had caused my chest to tighten with anxiety and I had stopped breathing like twenty minutes ago, wanting to hold my breath until her screams had stopped.

I kept my hand in place and leaned forward a bit to whisper in her ear, "Marie, do you like this?"

"Yes," she hissed out.

"Why?" I asked curiously in a soft voice, moving my palm away and replacing it with my fingertips.

She was silent while I let my fingers lightly trace the outline of her bare folds through her sheer, black panties. I sat back and stared into her eyes, wondering what she was thinking…how her mind worked…why this whole scream/pain fest had aroused her.

Was it the song?

Was it the pain?

_Is my sassy seventeen year old a masochist? _

She moved her right hand then, and put it on my wrist, and when I realized that she wasn't trying to push my hand away, but trying to make my fingers press harder onto her sensitive skin, I subtly shook my head and scolded, "Put your hands to your sides and keep them there."

She complied with a slight moan and I took this new piece of information in…what that moan could possibly mean.

She likes being scolded and told what to do when she's…aroused?

I kept up a feather-light touch and started to trace her panty line on either side of her inner thighs. "Talk to me, Marie…tell me why you like this," I demanded, since that whole 'authorative voice' seemed to be working for her right now.

_Weird._

She bit her lip and my eyes zeroed in on the action. I used my free hand to cup her cheek and pull her bottom lip free with my thumb, before I leaned forward and kissed her. "Tell me, sweetheart…tell me why you like this," I murmured against her lips, pulling away again to stare into her lustful, chocolatey eyes.

"Mmm…I'm not like my sweet, pretty Bell, Edward," she told me in a breathy voice I'd never heard before.

It was sexy as hell.

"I like pain…the sound of a scream. To be able to cry and scream like that? It's a fucking awesome stress reliever," she informed me before asking with a smirk and a challenging eyebrow, "Can _you _make me scream?"

I smirked back and started circling her little clit with my fingertip. "I. Just. Did," I reminded her in a soft, taunting voice.

She nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you did…and it was fucking _amazing_."

A sudden feeling a relief mixed in with the confusion and apprehension I was feeling at the moment. I hadn't really hurt her when I ripped the wax paper from her armpits. She _liked _it.

_My beautiful little weirdo._

"Why this kind of pain though, love?"

Instead of answering me, she subtly pushed her hips into my hand, and I withdrew my fingers a little bit, not wanting to let her take control of this.

She scowled at me and I glared at her.

_I'm _in charge; she should know that by now.

"It's not just the pain of a wax, Edward," she told me then with a little shake of her head before she squinted her eyes up at me. "You know, if you'd finger me while you were giving me one of those petty little spankins you seem to like so much, then those would be sexy as fuck, too," she told me.

I raised my eyebrows at her. "You _want _a spankin, Marie? Is that what you're saying?"

She was the one to lean in and whisper in my ear this time. "Only if you finger fuck me and pull my hair while you're at it," she told me, taking my earlobe in her hot little mouth and nibbling on it a little.

_Fuck me._

I fisted the shoulder length hair at the back of her head and went up on my knees, bringing her limp body with me before she could take another breath. I actually felt a shiver of lust run up my spine when she nibbled on my ear like that. Just something about having her teeth on me…god, it is the most _incredible _feeling in the world.

Her next breath came out as a gasp of surprise, and I chuckled as I latched my mouth onto her neck. I growled against her skin and held her to my chest, keeping my fist tight in her hair. My instincts were beginning to take over and I needed to show my dominance over my mate.

My Bella had learned…and now Marie would too. And something tells me she's going to like this side of me.

"You like that?" I purred, tugging on her hair a little as I began to gently suck on the delicious piece of skin outlining her jugular.

She made a throaty moaning noise that made my dick immediately harden in my jeans. "Ohhh, fuck…yesss," she hissed.

I nodded and took her little earlobe in _my _mouth this time, then released it with a small _pop_, and increased the pressure of my middle finger as it continued to circle her tiny clit. "Your panties are in my way," I whispered darkly in her ear, taking the opportunity to lick her neck, getting it ready for me to mark.

"Then fucking rip them off!" she demanded.

I chuckled and fisted the tiny string of fabric at the side and did just that, landing a firm swat to her left ass cheek when I was through. I immediately began kneading her warm flesh afterwards, wanting to rub the sting out as soon as possible because I didn't want to actually hurt her.

I decided that I'd have to read up on the topic of erotic spankings as soon as possible, but I was pretty sure that I got the gist of it already.

She moaned. "Mmmm…have I been a bad girl, Edward?" she purred when she felt the resounding _slap _of my hand against her flesh again a second later.

_Um, no. Not really._

"Yes," I replied, playing along. "Naughty," I growled playfully.

She giggled breathlessly. "Then teach me a lesson," she challenged in a snarky tone.

I took my hand away from her ass and brought it back around to the front of her, wanting to tease her clit some more as my lips began to suck and mark that thin piece of flesh on her enticing neck.

I held her to me and kept her immobile while I dipped my middle finger inside of her. I delighted in the moans and whimpers that she breathed in my ear and rewarded her responsiveness with another finger, then started to circle that pretty little clit with the pad of my thumb.

_Fuck, she is gorgeous._

"Good girl."

Her aroused state just made her scent that much richer, and her blood rushed in her veins, singing to me…just for me, only for me. I licked at the sheen of sweat that had gathered on her neck by her shoulder and worked my fingers faster, pounding harder into her at her whimpered request.

When I felt her inner walls begin to contract around my fingers, I gave another little sharp tug on her hair and sucked dangerously hard on her neck, wanting to prolong the taste of her in my mouth, but I pulled back a second later, wanting even more to see her beautiful face as she climaxed for me.

I watched the goosebumps ignite along her skin at the sharp pull and even went as far as gently pinching her clit for added stimulation, since she appeared to like things a little rough.

I smiled and purred in content when that elicited a loud "Fuck!" and a satisfied moan from her, then slowed my fingers to a snail's pace as she contracted and climaxed around them. Her once rigid, high-strung body, was now turning limp and soft as she relaxed into my touch. I kept my fingers slow, sliding in and out of her as she came down from her high. She let out a tiny whimper and a soft sigh as I lightly brushed my thumb over her now hypersensitive, wet little clit.

I chuckled and kissed my mark on her neck, then lightly peppered them all the way up to her ear, where I finally murmured, "You're beautiful."

"And you're fuckin sexy," was her blunt reply.

I chuckled again and kissed her forehead, removing my hand from her sex and bringing it up to my mouth. She stayed cradled to my chest and watched, entranced, as I sucked and slowly licked her juices from my fingers, savoring the sweet freesia taste of my mate.

_Delicious._

She distractedly licked her lips as she watched mine and I smirked, deciding to let her have a little taste too. I leaned forward and placed a gentle, chaste kiss to her pouty lips and she moaned into my mouth, right before she let her warm little tongue peek out and glide along my bottom lip.

"Yummy," she remarked in a whisper.

_I know._

I smiled and smacked her ass again. "Go take your shower, love."

She nodded and kissed me again before she hurried to break away from our embrace and hop down off the bed. She snatched her ripped panties from the floor, then skipped off towards the bathroom. "Be out in a minute!" she called before closing the door behind her.

I shook my head at her retreating form and quickly adjusted my pants before I got off the bed, as well. I cleaned up Marie's waxing mess, and threw all the used strips, along with the empty glass jar, in the trash.

After I straightened out the covers, I grabbed a cat toy and tried to coax the little bugger out from underneath the bed. It had apparently went into hiding after Marie's groans and screams started. After a minute, I decided that I sucked when it came to kittens because the damn thing kept cowering away in fear of me. And I guess that would make sense because I practically had a bright red neon sign on my forehead that flashed and screamed 'Predator' to it.

Oh well. My mate can deal with the feline.

I left the kitten alone then, and a minute later, I found that Marie had chosen to go soulful this afternoon when Alicia Keys 'When You Really Love Someone' came blaring through the boom box speakers in the bathroom. The shower spray came on and I listened to her melodic voice sing along as I tried to pick an outfit for her to put on when she was done. I wanted it to be comfortable because I knew that my mate would be napping soon.

She was worn out when we left the hospital, and I'm sure a waxing session and an orgasm had only added to her exhaustion, no matter how much Marie wanted to hide it. I saw it in her soft, chocolate eyes while I was holding her limp body against mine a minute ago.

My baby was tired.

I ended up picking some soft cotton black sweat pants and a white Nike t-shirt that was one size too big. I double checked the tag, and it said Medium on it, so I knew that it would be loose fitting and comfortable on my small girl. I also grabbed a pair of socks out of the drawer.

All of my mate's alternates, my Bella included, didn't seem to mind wearing socks and shoes…it was only Isabella that had insisted on playing and walking around the house barefoot. I contemplated on her being the one to return to me after the shower.

_Hmmm…_

Yes, I would make her wear the socks, too. It was cool in the house and only 68 degrees outside today. She would need to keep warm.

It was still Marie in there right now, though, and she was singing her little heart out.

I smiled. She was just so care-free, and fun-spirited, and uninhibited. I loved her so much, and I was beginning to get excited at the differences between her and my Bella. Those were the two personalities that I could safely have a sexual relationship with, and while my Bella is shy and sweet, Marie is more blunt and adventurous. She gets straight to the point and she seems to want to explore things that are a little bit out of the norm. Her apparent needs call to the more natural side of me…she wants me to take control and to dominate…be a little rough with her. Granted, what I had shown her today was nothing compared to what I am capable of, but she seemed to enjoy it a lot.

Yes…I would have a lot of fun playing with her.

She came out of the bathroom then, wrapped in only a towel, and headed straight for the dresser.

"Marie, hun…your clothes are right here," I informed her, pointing to the spot by the foot of the bed.

She turned and walked over to the bed, then snatched the clothes up in her small, damp hand. "Thanks. And it's Joey," she said, clutching the clothes to her chest, and turning to walk right back to the bathroom.

I widened my eyes. So _Joey _wants to come around now?

Fine. That's okay. That fine.

The music cut off just as a loud, "What the fuck!" fell from his lips.

I furrowed my brow and stared at the door, wondering what had gotten him so upset in the past three seconds. I listened to the fabric of the towel furiously sliding over my mate's skin, followed by the sound of her getting dressed. A minute later, Joey emerged and came right up to me.

"Does Bella own a sports bra?"

I bit my lip, taken aback by his sudden and abrupt forwardness. "Um…yeah," I muttered with a little nod.

He exhaled sharply and looked up at me expectantly. "Well?"

I nodded. "Right. I'll go get it for you."

While I was rummaging through the drawers for the only white sports bra that my Bella owned, I listened to Joey's hushed ramblings. Phrases like "When the fuck did this happen" and "This is so gross" fell from his lips before I figured out what he was talking about. I stared at the small piece of clothing in my hand and concluded that Joey was not happy about my Bella's beautiful breasts.

With a little chuckle at the absurdity of the situation, I turned around and handed the bra over. "Here ya go-"

"Thanks," he clipped, cutting me off as he scrutinized the white fabric in his hand. "This should do the trick…" he muttered, then jogged off, right back into the bathroom.

When he came out, I offered him the socks and he slipped them on with ease, but there was still a frustrated look on his face, so I decided to talk to him.

"What's up, Joey?"

He scoffed. "Right, like you don't know…" he muttered.

I sighed. "Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked.

He looked up at me and stood from the bed. "About what?"

"…whatever's bothering you," I hedged.

"Bella grew tits, that's what's bothering me!" he shouted, grabbing the left one in his palm before letting his hand fall back down to his side. "When the fuck did _that _happen? And who's the dude with the yellow hair that hurt Isabella this morning? You let a strange mantouch us?" he asked, getting more upset. "What the fuck, Edward - I thought we were friends!"

I furrowed my brow. "Joey, woah…calm down-"

"You calm down!" he shot right back. "You're not the guy walkin around with tits on his chest!"

_Oh my god._

I bit the inside of my cheek to fight a smile and went on as if he hadn't said anything. "Bella is a girl, Joey, you know that. Her body just did it's natural thing - and I'm sorry if that upsets you. And as for that _strange man_? Joey…that is your doctor. My father. He won't hurt you," I assured him.

He glared at me. "Whatever," he muttered, before sidestepping me and going over to his toy shelf.

I sighed in resignation and sat down on the bed. I watched Joey play with his Transformers toys and remote control Hummer for twenty minutes before I spoke up again, wanting to give him some time to cool off. "Hey there, buddy…"

He looked up from his Lego house with raised eyebrows and smiled at me. "Hm?"

I smiled back, glad that he seemed to be in a better mood now. "We still friends?" I softly hedged.

He nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. We're buds for life," he assured me, then went back to his game with the green and yellow Legos.

"Good…" I murmured, satisfied with his answer.

"You love our Bella, huh?" he asked after a minute, not taking his eyes away from his project.

I nodded, even though he couldn't see me. "Yes."

"You want to fuck her too, yes?"

I exhaled sharply. "Joey, I-"

His eyes flicked up to mine then. "I mean, do you want to fuck Bella as well, or just Marie…" he trailed off in clarification.

After a few seconds, all I could do was nod. "Yes…I want to _make love_ to Bella, as well."

He furrowed his brow. "What's the difference?"

I subtly shrugged. "One is casual and can be between two strangers, while the other is done out of love and is between two soul mates."

He rolled his eyes. "Gooey stuff…" he muttered in disgust. "Whatever. I just wanted to know if you only wanted to fuck Bella and Marie, or all of us."

I widened my eyes and was quick to reply to that. "Joey, _that _type of relationship is only for me and Bella. I will not have intercourse with Marie, or _any _of you guys, for that matter."

He nodded. "Fine by me," he replied, then started putting his Legos back in the bucket.

_I should hope so._

"Um…Joey, you saw that?" I asked, then clarified a second later, "You saw what I did with Marie?"

He nodded and closed the lid on the bucket.

I was suddenly very intrigued and very apprehensive, all at the same time. "Um…what…what did you do when I was intimate with Marie like that?"

He shrugged and stood up, putting the bucket back on the blue shelf. "Watched."

"What?" I breathed, slightly perplexed and not entirely comfortable with this revelation…at all

"We all watch."

_Fuck my life._

I just nodded dumbly and watched his movement as he walked over to me.

I was going to have to rethink being intimate with my mate, but I didn't _want _to. I didn't want to have to think twice and hesitate when I got the urge to taste her pussy.

That's _my _pussy, goddamn it, and I can taste it whenever I want.

But is it good for Isabella and Hadassah to watch? Are they scared? Disgusted? Confused?

Do they even care?

Isabella doesn't seem to mind…but at the same time, she's never brought it up.

When Joey and I were finally face to face, he said in all seriousness, "I don't like people with yellow hair, Edward. I don't like cameras and I'll break your camcorder if I ever find out you have one. I don't like racist fucks, and I don't like Nazis. Isabella's about to catch a beat down if she calls me a _kike _one more motherfuckin time. Understand? So just keep your _Daddy _away from me, Edward, and we'll get along just fine."

I furrowed my brow, concerned. "Joey, my dad-"

"Don't make excuses for them, Edward," he interrupted me, shaking his head. "I've had plenty of experiences to know that the yellow-haired fucks are racist Nazis, and that _all _dads are a bunch pedophilic pricks that get their nut by making me scream. Isabella doesn't like them. And I don't like them."

I sighed and tried to explain again. "Joey, if you would just give him a chance, then-"

"Keep your Dad_ away_, Edward," he repeated, raising his voice over mine this time. He clenched his jaw and squinted his eyes into a slight glare, then said in a grim tone, "He looks like Jim. _Bose_."

I subtly nodded, wanting to placate him but knowing that he couldn't avoid my Sire forever. I was beginning to understand Isabella's hatred for Carlisle more and more each day. It's not just the hair…it's that he has similar features to her abuser. This is going to be more complicated than I thought. "I'll see what I can do…" I muttered in response.

He nodded in the same fashion, keeping eye contact with me for a minute longer before he turned to go downstairs. I followed after him and watched as he reached behind his head and quickly took the thin hair tie that had been around his wrist, and fastened it around the loose strands that were hanging over his shoulders.

Halfway down the steps, his pace slowed and he turned around to face me.

"Ed-ward?"

I smiled and picked up my baby girl, cradling her to my chest. "What's up, baby?" I asked in a soft voice, kissing her rosy cheek.

"Hungry," she whispered in my ear, like she was telling me a secret. She even cupped her mouth to my ear, and everything.

_Adorable._

I nodded. "Okay, sweetness, let's see about getting you a snack," I told her while I walked through the living room, past Emmett and Rosalie.

Alice and Jasper were out hunting right now, while Carlisle was still at the hospital and Esme was up in her room. So they were the only other people in the house at the moment.

I sat Hadassah down on the countertop and pulled the purple pacifier out of my pocket, then handed it over to my little girl. She took it from me gratefully, and slipped it in between her puckered lips while I rummaged through the cabinets above her head to look for a light snack for my mate.

I eventually just grabbed a rice krispies treat and filled up her Disney princess cup with some apple juice and handed it to her.

She took the pacifier out of her mouth and happily chewed on the sweet treat while I opened the drawer to get a pill out of her small medicine bottle. I needed to get that dose of Prozac in her as soon as possible.

"Here, baby…" I said, placing the tiny pill in her outstretched hand. "Put this in your mouth and swallow it before you take another bite of your krispy."

She nodded, but didn't comply, only stared at it like she didn't know what to do, so I decided to help her.

After I took the pill back in my own hand, I smiled encouragingly at her and said, "Show me your tongue."

She giggled up at me and stuck her tongue out through slightly pursed lips.

I smiled, then remembered a common doctor trick and decided to put it to good use, so I congratulated her on showing me her tongue. "Good girl…now, can you open your mouth and say, 'ahhh'?"

She nodded and opened her mouth, sticking her tongue out a bit and breathed, "Ahhh…" in a soft voice.

_Perfect._

"Good job!" I complimented again. "Now, I'm gonna put this on your tongue," I told her, showing her the tiny white pill that I had pinched between my fingertips, "and you gotta drink your sippy cup until it goes all gone. Can you do that?" I asked in a light tone.

She nodded, waiting with a confidant look on her face and an open mouth to show me that she could complete any challenge I threw her way.

I placed the pill on the back on her pink tongue and told her, "Okay, now drink your sippy cup until the pill goes goodbye-bye."

Yes, I had reverted to baby talk.

Shut up, it works.

She smiled at me and did as she was told, showing me an empty tongue when she was through, thoroughly proud of herself for completely those three tasks.

I put both my hands on the counter, on either side of her hips, and leaned in to kiss her soft rosy cheek. "Good job, sweetie pie…you did it. You're such a good girl. I love you," I told her in a soft voice.

"Love you too," she replied with a mouth full of rice krispy.

I nodded and turned around to grab a bottle of water out of the fridge to bring back upstairs with us, but when I turned back around to face my little girl, I saw that she was slowly reaching for the electrical socket with a curious look on her face, and I acted on instinct…without thinking.

I reached for her wrist with a firm grim, then smacked the back of her hand. "No!" I scolded.

She immediately jumped, startled, and started crying. Loudly.

_Damn it._

I sighed, thinking that a bit of baby-proofing around the house wasn't that bad of an idea after all.

When Hadassah looked up at me with hurt and confusion in her sad, watery eyes, I pointed to the plug by the toaster, and said "That is bad, Hadassah," I told her. "That will _hurt _you. Don't touch it. It's bad," I reiterated.

Her only response was to cry some more, so of course, I immediately felt like an ass, and I picked her up off the counter to cradle her to my chest, then started shushing her. "Shhh…it's okay baby. You're okay," I softly assured her in her ear. I kissed her cheek, and wiped some tears away with my free hand. "Shhh…"

I stood in the kitchen, holding her to me while we swayed and worked together to quiet her cries, and after a couple more sniffles, she pointed to the offending electrical socket and scolded, "No!", yelling at it for it's apparent 'badness', much like I had done to her a minute before.

I softly chuckled and kissed her cheek again. "That's right, angel…those are bad."

She nodded and fisted my shirt in her little hand. The hand that I had smacked. "Mm-hmm," she hummed in agreement.

I grabbed her sippy cup with my free hand and took her back upstairs then, knowing that my mate still needed a nap. When we were in our bedroom, I moved her over to sit on my hip and let her hold her sippy cup while I wiped her face with a tissue and let her blow her nose into it.

After I got her all cleaned up, I decided to let her pick a movie for naptime, but then after she just silently shrugged at twelve movies, I threw that asinine idea out the window and picked one myself.

As soon as Prancer was loaded and playing on the flat screen, I sat down on the rocking recliner in the corner, and let my baby situate herself on my lap so that she was comfortable. She eventually ended up sitting next to me on the recliner, but kept herself tucked and snuggled into my side.

I lightly trailed my fingertips along her arm and occasionally played with her hair once I removed the hair tie that Joey had put in there a while ago. She sucked on her purple pacifier and sipped from her sippy cup while she quietly focused on the movie that I had picked out for her.

I eventually got the gist of it. It was a Christmas movie. And we were watching it in the Spring time. I was further reminded of how inappropriate my selection was when Hadassah piped up a second later with, "Santa's comin, huh…"

I rolled my eyes and sighed, then kissed her temple, taking notice of her slightly puffy tired eyes and how she was relentlessly trying to keep them open. "Naptime, baby…" I trailed off the reminder.

She whimpered and twisted her body around, coming up on my lap to straddle me now, and bury her face in my neck. "Want Mommy…" she mumbled.

_Aw._

"Shhh…" I shushed her, keeping up my slow rocking motion and rubbing her back.

"Want Daddy…" she mumbled in the same fashion.

_Hmmm…_

Well, this is new. Isabella and Marie hate my Bella's parents…but Hadassah appears to miss them. I wonder how Joey feels about them.

"Edward?"

I decided to put that train of thought aside and deal with it later, so that I could focus on my little girl and her usual game of twenty questions. "Yes, baby?"

"You're mine, huh?" she chirped.

I smiled and gently patted her back, rubbing small circles into it. "Yes, Isabella, I'm your's."

"Mm-hmm, yah-huh…and Edward?"

"Yes, angel?"

"I'm your's, huh?"

_Mine._

"Yes," I assured her for what seemed to be the millionth time in the past three weeks.

"Edward?"

"Yeah?"

"My baby kitty's mine too, huh?"

I looked at the napping cat in the corner. "Mm-hmm, she's your's _and _Hadassah's, baby girl," I confirmed.

She nodded and after a few seconds, spoke up again. "Edward?"

"Hmm?"

"Bella is sad," she said simply.

I sighed. "I know…" I murmured sadly.

"Yeah…and Edward?"

"Yes?"

"What's this movie?" she asked, twisting around slightly to look at the flat screen.

I gently palmed the back of her head and coaxed it back down to my shoulder. "Prancer," I replied.

"And it's got Santa in it too, huh?"

"Yes."

"And Edward?"

"Hmm?"

"He's comin to give me presents soon, huh?"

I chuckled. "At Christmas time, yes he is."

"Mm-hmm…and Edward?

"Yes, angel?

"I love you."

_Aw._

I kissed her hair and ran my fingers through it. "I love you too, baby girl."

She stuck her thumb in her mouth then, and fell silent, and I was thankful for that because she really needed to get some rest. Her body's movements were slowing down and her speech had been slightly slurred.

I loosened her little hand's grip on the princess sippy cup and placed it on the side table, then took the pacifier out of her other hand and stuffed in it my pocket for today's later use. I lightly traced the pink-tinged skin on the top of her hand and brought it to my lips for a soft kiss, regretting having to smack Hadassah earlier today.

_Ugh, will I ever get this parenting crap right? _

"Mine," came a soft whispered sigh as my little angel slipped over the brink of unconsciousness a second later.

I smiled and turned my attention back to the tv, resolving to rock my mate and watch the Christmas movie until she woke up and we did this all over again.

* * *

A/N:

_Bose _= Evil

So, are you still sad and depressed and reduced to tears after this chap? I hope not, sweets! I know it's a crazy ride, but cheer up, doll :) Don't worry, be happy ~ I'll see you through the tough times.

Read & Review!

Pretty Please?


	5. Flip The Switch

A/N:

It's story time, kids!

Kay, I know that some of you skip over the italicized parts when there is a therapy session, but I'm telling you right now - DON'T do it this time.

If you do, you won't know what's going on later in this story and the flashbacks in this chap aren't even cringy.

~ ENJOY ~

* * *

EPOV

"Here…"

"Thank you, baby," I murmured while I took the sixteenth piece of paper from her.

Hadassah had taken it upon herself to color pictures for me from her cartoon book for the past half hour. I smiled as I walked over to the art collection I had taped up on the wall above her toy box and quickly added this masterpiece to the collage. It was a picture of Dumbo and she had chosen to make him purple, instead of gray, with a pink trunk.

_Adorable._

A few of them had been from Isabella, and I had taped those above her pink toy box in the same fashion, on the opposite side of Joey's blue toy shelf. She had colored Elmo, Tinker Bell, and Ariel for me, and she was always putting a little red heart in the upper left hand corner of her pictures when she's done. It was quickly becoming her signature trademark.

My little girl hadn't spoken much because of the pacifier in her mouth, but I could always tell when it was Isabella and when it was Hadassah. Isabella was right-handed. Hadassah was left.

I turned back around to face my little girl and bit my lip to hide the smile at how adorable she looked right now, sitting back on her heels and perched in the middle of our bed like that.

When she had woken up from her nap a little while ago, Alice made herself known by coming into the room and talking to my brand new baby girl. It took her all of three seconds to decide that a game of dress-up was definitely in order. Hadassah, still bleary-eyed and sleepy, had just silently stared at my sister, completely and utterly fascinated with her, as she proceeded to go through different outfits and prance around the room like a pixie on crack.

My mate was no longer dressed in the comfy Nike sweats that I had put her in, but a short pink/black plaid skirt and a little pink camisole top to match. Her glittery pastel pink pacifier and the cute pigtails atop her head completed the look that just screamed ADORABLE. With her short hair, the small pigtails allowed the ends of her silky strands to curl right under those tiny little earlobes and when she turned her head, they even bounced a little.

I had been strongly opposed to Alice touching her hair, but when Hadassah didn't make any kind of protest, I held back my growl and simply warned my sister to be careful with her. I explained that my baby is very tender-headed. And that she's delicate, damn it.

I paid close attention to what Alice was doing to my mate's hair and carefully scrutinized her every move. I wanted to know exactly how she was putting her hair up like that, so that should my little girls want their hair styled like that in the future, then I'd be able to do it.

I didn't want Alice getting comfortable in the position of hairstylist.

That's my job.

_I _brush their hair. _I _take care of them.

Not Alice.

_Mine._

"Edward, pretties…" Isabella said as she offered me another picture.

"Thank you, baby love," I said, reaching for the colorful paper.

I noted that this one was a picture of Spongebob and that he was the correct color…yellow. I scotch-taped him on the wall next to Elmo, and went back to putting Joey's new clothes away.

Apparently, my sister had went to the local Walmart one town over, and picked up a few things that might be more agreeable with his particular fashion sense. After all, I couldn't really expect him to skip around in dresses and put on pretty blouses all the time, could I?

No. I had to be realistic and come to terms with our unique situation. My Bella would be acting a dressing like a boy every once in a while, so I just had to accept that and accommodate her needs in this matter. Or, _Joey's _needs in this matter.

Whatever.

I thanked Alice when she brought up the few shopping bags, but I was completely taken aback and surprised by it because I didn't know that she was planning on getting him anything. Had I known, I would have given her my credit card. She just simply waved me off with a bright smile, saying that she would _never _give up the opportunity to shop, and that that's exactly what this was. An opportunity to shop.

_If you say so…_

She had gotten him in own collection of underwear and bedtime clothes, along with some daytime clothes, as well. His new shorts would come down to his knees, as opposed to my Bella's shorts that only came down to her upper thighs and barely covered those delectable little ass cheeks of hers. His shirts were definitely more boy-oriented, and he even had some Doc Marten men's boots all his own now. They were size 6, so they were small enough to fit him, but they were 'men' shoes, nonetheless. I imagined that he would be pleased. And as far as underwear and pajamas went, it turns out that my Bella's petite form would fit the clothes that they had in the little boys section there. Granted, it's the largest size in the little boy's section, but it's _still _boy's clothes, and that's perfect for Joey. So, he has cartoon boxers and little miniature wife beaters to wear to bed now, too.

His wife beaters are a lot smaller than mine. I remembered back when Marie had worn one of mine to bed and the hem of it came down to her mid-thigh. She had to roll it up so that it lay loosely around her hip bones.

I was giving Joey his own little corner in our walk-in closet, and letting him share my underwear drawer since I didn't really need it. I had already folded all his little Cars, Scooby-Doo, Transformers, and Hulk boxers and stuck them in there, along with the ten pack of multi-colored wife beaters that Alice had picked out for him.

She had also gotten his some Ray Bans and a black baseball cap similar to Marie's. I put those on the dresser, by my Bella's charging cell phone, and decided to just let him find a place to put them if he didn't want them to stay on the dresser.

"Ed-ward?" Hadassah whispered when I came out of the closet.

"Yeah?"

"Potty."

I nodded and leaned across the bed, reaching for her. I hooked my hands underneath her shoulders and brought her to my chest, then held out my palm to her. "Give me your crayon."

She deposited the green crayon into my hand and I kissed her forehead, then set her back down on her feet. "Alright, go potty," I instructed with a soft pat to her bottom.

I listened to the sounds of her heartbeat as I sat down on the bed and started putting the scattered crayons back into their designated box. I was done organizing Joey's things for him, so I figured that I might as well clean up my baby girls' mess, too. Once all the crayons were put away, I set the open box up by the open coloring book, and went over to the media shelf to select a movie to put on for my little angel.

Just as I was loading up Finding Nemo, my Bella came out of the bathroom.

"Really, Edward? Pigtails?" she asked in her soft, mellow voice.

I turned around and smiled at her. "You look adorable," I assured her.

She smirked with a roll of her eyes, but didn't say anything else on the matter, just went over to the desk and powered on the laptop.

"Whatchya doin?"

"Checking my email," she told me with a nonchalant shrug just as Tinker Bell the kitten pounced in her lap. She looked down at it, momentarily surprised. "Oh, hey…hi sweetie," she cooed to it, rubbing it's little head with the tip of her index finger.

I walked over to her and dropped a cool kiss to the top of her soft head. "How do you feel, love?" I asked, still a little concerned about her. She seemed better, but her last statement about death hadn't escaped my memory at all. By any means.

She just shrugged noncommittally again. "It's good to be home…" she muttered, but left it at that as she logged onto the computer and brought up it's Internet Explorer program.

I decided to let the juvenile movie continue to play in the back round because I knew that one of my little girls would come back around soon enough; they always do, but I kept the volume on it to a muted low so that my Bella could turn on the Windows Media Player application and subtly play her Rock playlist she had put on there.

I watched as she typed out an email reply to her mother and Angela. She deleted most of the messages in her inbox, including a few from Mike and Jessica, but typed a hasty note to her father's email address before she closed out the internet box.

All her messages had been short, not sweet, and straight to the point.

_Mom: You ruined my life and I can't decide whether I will ever speak to you again. I'm not sure that I want to. Don't call me and only email me for important things as I have no desire to chat about stupid, everyday shit with you. You're a horrible mother. Tell Phil I said hi._

_Angela: Yes. You're right. We should hang out sometime. So when you find a minute and you're not busy getting boned in the ass by Ben, give me a call. We'll hook up._

_Dad: You're a liar and a lousy excuse for a father. You accuse me of murder. I accuse you of neglect. Go fuck yourself and tell Sue she's better off without you. We all are. _

I let my lingering presence behind her be known as I started to gently massage her bare shoulders. I stayed standing in place behind the chair as she relaxed back into it and held the kitten in her lap while she listened to her music.

She didn't sing, but I didn't expect her to. Marie and Isabella sing. My Bella doesn't. I almost wished that she would feel comfortable enough to hum along to one of her favorite songs, but I understood that that leisure had been taken away from her as a child. Jim had stabbed her with a hot fire poker for singing Christmas songs one year while she was decorating the tree. She would never sing again.

I didn't blame her.

The evening hours were fast approaching and I knew that Carlisle would want to try and have a therapy session with her tonight. He was eager to learn about Hadassah and Joey, and he also needed to talk to her about her little three-day checkout from reality. I was supposed to be monitoring her vitals when I brought her home and keep an eye on her until he got back.

Well, he'll be glad to know that she's been fine. Absolutely perfect. It's almost as if nothing had happened…at all. Like she didn't just go comatose for sixty-some-odd hours.

Bella didn't talk while she sat there in the chair. She just absently stroked the kitten's soft fur and stared in a daze at the brightly lit patterns playing on the computer screen. She had a slight scowl on her beautiful face, and I wanted to know what she was thinking. I'd give anything to know what she was thinking at that moment.

I didn't want her to draw back into herself. I wanted her to stick around for a while.

I continued my finger's soothing movements over her silky warm flesh and worked out the tight muscles I encountered while freely exploring her frail shoulders.

Sometimes she would hum, or sigh softly in content, but she didn't speak.

"Bella, did you want to go do something, or are you comfortable here in the chair?" I asked after a minute.

"We can go do something if you want…" she trailed off in response.

I furrowed my brow. That's not what I had asked. "What do _you _want, love?" I asked pointedly.

She sighed. "I don't care, Edward," was her monotone reply.

BPOV

I don't fucking care - stop talking to me. I don't want to talk. I don't want to aware. Why the fuck am I here? In pigtails and a skimpy schoolgirl outfit, no less! Ridiculous.

_Isabella! _

**Hm?**

_Not cool. _

**Ali did it.**

_I don't care, I don't want- _

**But it wasn't me! She dressed up Dassah and then we got to color pretty pictures for my Edward…**

_Whatever. I don't want her touching me anymore. Got it?_

**Yah-huh.**

_Good. Now come out here and deal with this._

**Gonna get to see my Edward now?**

_Yeah, have at it._

**Kay **she giggled. **He's mine.**

_I know._

EPOV

"Edward?"

I slowed my hand's movements. "Yeah?"

"Want my binky back," Isabella told me.

I nodded and moved so that she could roll her seat back and stand up. "Did Bella leave it in the bathroom, sweetheart?" I asked while I started to make my way over in that direction.

She nodded. "Mm-hmm, yah-huh," she chirped as she started to climb back on the bed.

When I came back into the bedroom after retrieving my baby's pink pacifier for her, I saw that she was laying on the bed, face down, and she lazily kicking her feet up in the air. She was focusing on finishing her half-done picture while watching the movie playing on the flat screen.

I took the TV off of it's silent mute so that she could enjoy her movie, then joined her on the bed and watched as she finished coloring the detailed picture of Nemo and his friends.

0000000000

"Ohhh yeah…take that and suck it!" Joey taunted with a playful smirk as Emmett rolled his eyes and hit the button on the Wii controller to start the next level of Super Smash Bros.

We were downstairs now, and I was busy preparing my mate's dinner for her while she, or _he_, for the matter, played his new video games in the living room with my brother.

I noted that Carlisle was up in his study, patiently waiting for my girl or one of her alternates to arrive so that he could begin tonight's intended therapy session.

"Hey Joey!" I called out, placing the portable weight scale down on the tiled floor.

"Yah?"

"C'mere for a sec!"

"Kay!" he hollered back.

My mate came jogging into the kitchen then, no longer dressed in a pink shirt and plaid skirt. No…_that _particular outfit was laying in the middle of our bed, waiting for one of my little girls to come back around.

Joey had abruptly changed into a pair of his new jean shorts and a plain black t-shirt, right before he ripped the pigtails out of his hair and tied the short chocolate strands behind his head in a low ponytail, instead.

My mate had a whole new look and persona going on in two minutes flat.

It was very interesting to watch.

"What?" he questioned, looking up at me with thin furrowed eyebrows.

I pointed to the small scale suggestively. "I need to weigh you, buddy," I told him.

He nodded and hopped on. "Got anything to eat?" he asked while we were waiting for the red digital numbers to appear.

I nodded. "I'm making your dinner right now," I murmured distractedly as I wrote down the number 98 with a smile.

She had gained a pound.

_Success._

He stepped off the small white square then. "Um…I want something now," he muttered quietly.

I looked up and saw how he was eyeing the open loaf of bread on the counter beside me.

_Uhmm…_

"I don't want you to ruin your appetite, buddy…" I offered in a light tone, noting that his pot pie would be done in about eight minutes.

He tore his gaze away from the loaf to look at me, before his eyes quickly shot back over to the bread on the counter. After one last glance my way, his small hand shot out, quick like a snake, and he snatched up a white slice, then proceeded to stuff the whole damn thing in his mouth while slowly backing away from me with a determined, yet slightly ferocious look in his eyes.

I watched, bewildered, as he placed his palm over his mouth and tried to ball up the rest of the remains that hadn't initially fit, and tried to stuff them into his small mouth, as well.

He eventually paused his steps, but kept eye contact with me as he chewed. The predator in me recognized the scowl on his face as a silent warning to stay away from his food; his kill, so to speak, but it was also a dare for me to do something about it. The look in his eyes held a subtle challenge in them. He was wondering if I was going to fight him for the food.

The back of his hand remained on his lips as his jaw worked in overtime.

I took a small step forward, concerned and wanting to placate him. "Joey, I-"

I stopped my advances on him when he shot me a scathing glare and slightly growled in the back of his throat.

_Woah…_

I subtly shook my head and lightly held up my hands in a sign of surrender. "Okay, Joey - I'm not going to take the bread away from you," I promised, carefully emphasizing each word. "If you want to snack on some bread until your dinner is done, then by all means…have at it. I will _never _deny you food," I told him, keeping eye contact so that he could both see and hear the sincerity in my words.

He furrowed his brow and stared at me in silence as he finally swallowed the lump of bread in his mouth. After eight seconds, his chocolate eyes flicked back over to the loaf of bread on the counter, then back to me, as if he was testing my words and his boundaries on this matter.

I gave him a slight nod of encouragement, then decided to take it up a notch by grabbing the loaf of bread and offering it to him.

He didn't speak, just stared at me with a skeptical look.

"Go on…" I encouraged, holding the opened bag of bread out to him.

He slowly reached his thin arm out and dipped his hand into the bag, bringing a small piece of bread out with it. He tore a little piece of crust off and put it in his mouth, then chewed it slowly while he continued to just fucking stare at me.

It was kind of creeping me out.

He subtly cleared his throat then. "Uhh…" he hesitated. "You want some?" he asked in a timid voice, holding his half eaten slice out to me.

I shook my head and gave him a small smile, then placed the bread back on the counter. "No Joey, this is yours…all of the food in this house is yours," I informed him.

He nodded a bit sheepishly in response, as if he was just now realizing his overreaction with the slice of bread earlier, and finished his snack as he stood there in front of me. "Sorry, Edward," he murmured after he swallowed.

I nodded in acknowledgement. "It's okay, Joey - you didn't do anything wrong. You were just hungry. And at least now you know that you never have to ask for food, right? This is your home. You can just come down here and eat whenever you want. No one will ever take food away from you, buddy. Alright?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay."

"Okay."

After another minute, the oven timer beeped, so I turned and took the simple Stouffer's dinner out of the oven, then went to work on preparing my mate's plate for her. It didn't escape my notice that Joey quickly rummaged through a cabinet and stuffed a few granola bars into his deep pockets when my back was turned, but I didn't address the matter any further with him. They were his granola bars anyway, and I had learned from one of my Bella's therapy sessions last week that this particular personality is obsessed with food…he hoards it.

Instead of focusing on the bad things and questioning why he is like this, because it was glaringly obvious that my Bella was starved as a kid, I chose to focus on the positive aspects of it and how I could use his unhealthy obsession to my advantage.

This personality would be key…he would help me with my Bella's weight gain goal.

I resolved right then and there to offer him a big bowl of icecream for dessert. Chocolate icecream. With whipped cream. And then maybe we'll bake some brownies.

Hopefully, by this time next week, I'll be able to record another pound on that damn weight scale.

0000000000

"I said no."

"I said yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No, Isabella."

"Yes, Edward."

I sighed. This was getting ridiculous. "Sweet baby, your kitty doesn't want to fly. If you toss her down to the next landing, then she might get hurt," I pointed out.

"But, it'll be fun Edward," she insisted in her child-like voice while holding the tiny feline to her chest.

_Poor thing._

"And every knows that Tinker Bell can fly, donchya know…"

I shook my head. "No," I repeated, my tone ringing with finality now.

She stomped her foot and I scowled at her. "I mean it, Isabella. If you throw your kitten down the stairs, then I'm taking her back to the shelter. You're supposed to take care of her, not hurt her."

She furrowed her thin brow and huffed. "I'm not gonna _hurt _her, Edward, I'munna _play _with her. Flying is fun, and Tinker Bell wants to fly."

"No, she doesn't."

"Yes, she does."

I rolled my eyes. "That's enough, Isabella. Stop arguing with me and go put your toys away."

"Nooo…" she whined.

I took the tiny kitten out of her hand's embrace, then quickly reached around her small form and firmly swatted her ass. "Yeeesss…" I mocked when she started to cry, then gave her a slight glare and pointed towards our bedroom, indicating that she needed to do as she was told and go put her damn toys away.

She turned away from me and slowly walked towards our bedroom, pouting and crying the whole way.

I set the kitten down on the stairwell landing and followed after Isabella, and once we were in the bedroom, I helped her pick up and put everything away.

After dinner, she had come back around just in time to decline the icecream, much to my dismay, and she wanted to come back up here. She had changed back into her pink outfit, took her hair down, and went to play with a few of her new toys.

Well, a few toys quickly turned into _a lot _of toys, and her and Hadassah ended up making a huge mess on the floor. There were crayons, markers, coloring books, dolls, number magnets, ball rattles, play jewelry, and stuffed animals tossed around everywhere. It looked like the fucking Toys R Us threw up in here.

The bed sheets and blankets were all crumpled from them jumping up and down on them. The Little Mermaid was still playing loudly in the back round. I found that Joey's secret granola bars were stashed underneath the bed, and that Marie's special leather bracelet was laying haphazardly on top of the dresser.

_She will not be pleased._

"Edward?" Isabella piped up once the room was all clean.

"Hmm?"

She reached for the pink pacifier on the nightstand and asked, "Cuddle?"

I just silently nodded and picked her up, bringing her to my chest for one of my favorite hugs. After a minute of gently caressing her back and pacing, she took the pacifier out of her mouth and wanted down.

"Edward, let's go play the fuckawesome new Mariokart game on the Wii," Marie suggested excitedly.

I turned to look at the clock and noticed that it was almost 8:00, so I reluctantly nodded, figuring that I could play the game with Marie for a while, but then that therapy session would have to happen, and then it would be time for bed.

Marie set my little girl's binky down on the dresser, then followed after me down the stairs with a little bounce in her step, smiling the whole way. Once we were in the living room, I switched out Smash Bros for Mariokart and tossed Marie the special wheel controller.

She picked Peach, as usual, and I picked Mario, because he's better, and then the games began.

We had been playing for about ten minutes, when Joey came back around and wanted to play Smash Bros instead. He had been playing it with Emmett before dinner and he seemed to enjoy himself, so I nodded, agreeing to the change, and quickly switched out the games. Again, I chose Mario, while his selection landed on Luigi, and soon, we were diligently working together to kick Bowser's ass.

"Oh nooo…I died," he exclaimed as Luigi fell off the mountain, only to reappear a second later for another turn.

"It's okay - you're doing great, buddy," I encouraged as I kicked a green turtle shell towards Peach's bitch ass and knocked her off the mountain for knocking Luigi off the mountain.

_Take that, sucka. _

She reappeared a second later, and I threw a fucking boulder at her.

_That's what you get._

Joey laughed as we both started ganging up on Peach instead of Bowser now. "I'm telling ya…it's this pink shit, Edward," he told me, referring to the clothes he was currently wearing. "It's bad luck."

I observed his pink plaid skirt and smirked. "You can go change again if you want," I offered.

He shook his head. "Nah, Hadassah likes it…she can fuckin wear it," he relented, punctuating his statement by double clicking a button and sending a lightning bolt Bowser's way.

"Ed-ward…"

I turned to look at Hadassah. "Yeah baby?" I asked in an equally soft voice.

"Um…um…" her whispers hesitated.

I paused the game so that everything fell silent in the room, and focused on her alone. "What is it, angel?"

When she spoke again, she finally came up with, "Want my binky."

I nodded and immediately reached in my pocket for the purple one. After I handed it over, she stepped up to my side, and wrapped her thin arms around my waist, wanting to snuggle, apparently, so I set my controller down on the coffee table and wrapped my arms around my baby girl, cradling her to my chest.

I kissed her forehead and caressed her back gently, then reassured her, "I love you."

"Love you, too," she mumbled around her pacifier.

I picked her up then, and went to sit on the couch. I had gotten her situated her on my lap just as Emmett and Rosalie walked into the room.

Hadassah sighed and subtly kicked her legs out in a carefree way, staying tucked into my side and ignoring my coven members. "Ed-ward, where's my Mommy…?" she whispered then.

"On vacation," I answered automatically.

"Wha's vacation?"

I sighed then, remembering one of my Bella's favorite movies and how a character had described that particular word to her child in a certain scene. It seemed very fitting for this situation, so I decided to just mimic the explanation. "Vacation…" I hesitated. "Vacation is when you go somewhere. And you don't ever come back," I told her.

She just silently nodded at my explanation.

I half-expected her to cry at the thought of never seeing Renee again, since she appeared to miss her, but the tears never came. After a minute, she just laid her head down on my shoulder and her warm little fingers started to absently play with the collar of my shirt.

_Thank you, Forrest Gump._

I kissed her smooth forehead and held her to me while I carried on a conversation with Emmett, who had suddenly plopped down right beside us. Hadassah curiously observed our discussion about his prolonged vacation, but otherwise remained silent.

"Yeah…it was great, but I missed ya, bro," Emmett smirked, putting his arm around the back of my shoulders.

My little girl's sudden slight whine made us turn our attention towards her then.

She was scowling at Emmett's big hand, and three seconds later, she tried to shove it off of me while she continued to whine, "Nooo…"

Emmett looked at her questioningly, but didn't move his hand.

I furrowed my brow and jostled her a bit, getting her attention. "Hey…Isabella, what's wrong?"

She ignored me, but shot a glare towards Emmett as she clenched her jaw tight and screamed in the back of her throat.

"Stop it," I admonished her.

She softened her features then, and turned her head to face me, pouting. "Edward, you're miiine…" she informed me while trying to shove Emmett's rock hard hand off my shoulder again.

I sighed and Emmett finally removed his hand, both of us now realizing what the problem was.

God forbid somebody else should try to touch me.

_Ridiculous._

She was always so incredibly jealous and possessive, but at the same time, this _was _her first time witnessing someone other than my Bella having physical contact with me, so I really shouldn't have expected any less.

Apparently, a fit was in order for the occasion.

She sat on my lap and snuggled herself into my chest, keeping her scowling eyes on Emmett the whole time, while she proceeded to make a big show about how I was _hers. _

Because clearly, she could touch my shoulder, but he couldn't. And she could hug me, but he couldn't. And she could kiss my cheek, but he couldn't. And she could play with my hair, but he couldn't.

And so on, and so forth…

Emmett just sat there with silent look of disbelief in his eyes, and subtly shook his head at my little girl's antics. She was very blatantly marking her territory, and he found it somewhat amusing because he was no threat…he was my _brother_.

_She's cute _he thought when Isabella kissed my cheek for the seventh time.

I just rolled my eyes and let Isabella do her thing, because there was no denying that I was hers and she was mine.

Nine minutes later, my girl straightened up and snatched the binky out of her mouth.

Apparently, Marie was back and she wanted to get back to her Mariokart game.

She stood from my lap and stared down at me with a look of slight disbelief and even a little bit of hurt marring her perfect features. "Edward, we were on the damn ramp, but then you go and shut it off just 'cause _Joey _wants to switch games?" she accused.

I nodded and stood from the couch. "Yeah, but don't worry, babe…we can play another round of Mariokart before you have to go to therapy."

She furrowed her thin brow then. "_What _therapy?" she immediately shot back in a curt tone.

_Uh-oh…_

I hadn't exactly mentioned that she had a scheduled session with Carlisle for later on tonight.

I sighed then, steeling myself for a night full of tantrums, tears, and fights. "You have a session in a few minutes, love…" I confirmed quietly.

"What? !" she screeched.

"You're fuckin high!" Joey exclaimed.

"No!" Isabella shouted.

And then Hadassah started to cry.

_Fuck my life. _

I groaned quietly in frustration, and Emmett chuckled at my mate's unique display of quickly 'flipping the switch', as he liked to call it. She rarely ever did it, but there were times when all of her alternates had an opinion about something, and they just couldn't wait to voice their thoughts on the matter.

Now, being one of those times.

And it looks like they have all finally agreed on something today; No therapy.

Right, because when have they _ever _wanted to go to therapy?

And why the hell did I think that _this _time would be any different?

_Dumbass._

0000000000

"You sit. No…_you _sit, and _you _shut up," Joey demanded through gritted teeth.

He was in my father's study and he was being very hostile and cautious and guarded and scared and basically, everything I expected him to be. My Bella had yet to come around, which was extremely odd at this point, but it appeared as though Joey was checking to make sure everything was OK before he let any of the others out for a little visit with the doctor, my Bella included.

After I comforted Hadassah and assured her that this thing called therapy wasn't as bad as Isabella was making it out to be, I took her back upstairs to clean up her tear-stained face and calm her down some more.

While I was pacing the floor with her in my arms, Joey popped back up and I quickly released him from my hold when he started squirming around and pushing against my chest with his small fists. I set him back down on the floor, and he immediately went about changing into his boy-clothes, ripping the pink shirt off with abandon.

He was mad at me. He wouldn't talk to me.

And I was getting tired of his attitude.

"Joey, you need to fucking _calm down_. Marie and Isabella have their own set of rules, and you will too. Rule number one is don't cop an attitude with me. You understand?" I had asked.

He simply rolled his eyes. "Are you my friend, or my owner?" was his reply.

He had completely dodged my question with that question.

I furrowed my brow. "I'm your friend," I assured him.

He shook his head. "That's not what Isabella says."

I sighed. "Look, Joey - I'm your friend, but I'm also your authority figure. Your _only _authority figure. It's complicated, and we can discuss it later, but right now you have therapy and-"

"See?" he interrupted me. "This is _exactly _why Bella _hasst _you all right now," he had told me with a slight glare.

I just furrowed my brow at his statement, not really sure if he was telling the truth about my Bella's apparent 'hatred' for us, or not. I knew that she was angry with my coven, but she never said anything about _hate_. I hoped that he was just exaggerating with that comment. I mean, he was pretty angry. It was possible.

"Stay there, _don't _move," Joey warned with a clenched jaw as he started cautiously moving throughout the large room, inspecting the furniture and bookcases with great suspicion.

Carlisle and I both had a pretty good idea of what he was looking for, but Carlisle decided to go ahead and voice the stupid question anyway.

"What is it you're trying to find?" Carlisle asked in a gentle, placating tone.

Neither of us expected my mate's reaction.

He jumped slightly, startled by my Sire's tone of voice for some reason. "_Shut up_!" he screamed, flashing his hateful eyes towards Carlisle.

I sighed and gritted my teeth, steeling my resolve to remain just outside the door and keep an eye on my mate through Carlisle's perplexed mind.

Joey continued to dig around the bookcase, and even started shoving some books onto the floor so that he could thoroughly inspect the area behind the books as well. He lifted and flipped the couch cushions. He checked behind the long draped curtains…for what, I don't know.

He turned and suspiciously eyed Carlisle's desk then.

My Sire sat there, relaxed back into his chair, and tried to give young Joey a reassuring smile. "If you promise me that you won't destroy my things, then you can look through the drawers in my desk as well…" he trailed off suggestively.

Joey quickly shook his head, the hate never leaving his guarded chocolate eyes. "I'm not promising _you _shit," he spat, venom in his voice.

Carlisle sighed and stood from the desk, then took all three drawers out of the desk and set them down in front of Joey so that my mate could go through them at her leisure. He was hoping that if Joey saw his willingness to cooperate with him and his ridiculous search expedition, then he would realize that he wasn't such a bad guy, and he'd give him a chance.

_Yeah, don't get your hopes up, Carlisle…_

Joey is just like my baby Isabella; prejudice, hostile, and set in his own ways.

And it's all Jim's fault.

Seven minutes later, Joey was somewhat satisfied when he hadn't found any needles or purity knives, so he slowly backed away from Carlisle's drawers on the floor and allowed my Sire to retrieve them so that he could slide them back into place in his desk.

Joey went to sit on the leather couch then, and watched Carlisle's movements curiously as my Sire started to pick up the spilled books at a human pace and place everything back in it's proper spot on the shelves.

Joey did not offer to help, even though it was his mess. He just stared.

"What do you want?" he asked then, just as Carlisle turned to go back to his desk.

"I want to help you feel better," he informed him. "You, and Bella…as well as Marie, Isabella, and Hadassah."

"Don't fucking _lie _to me," Joey shot back.

Carlisle's eyes widened a bit as he shook his head. "I'm not lying to you."

"Yes. You. Are," Joey countered lowly. "You don't want to help, you want to _ausrotten_. You want to get rid of us. You are an _Arzt_, and you are _not _to be trusted."

And with that, Joey promptly stuck his thumb in his mouth and gave a little sigh, making the transition from ten year old to two year old complete.

"Hello, Hadassah," Carlisle greeted after a few seconds of observing her behavior and taking a guess at her identity.

"Hi," she softly whispered back.

After a minute of silence, she shyly informed him that she wanted me. He told her that she could see me in a little bit, but that they had to talk first. She reluctantly nodded with furrowed eyebrows, looking at the strange man before her that she had only met once.

"What would like to talk about, dear?" he asked then.

She just shrugged in response and I rolled my eyes because my Sire had yet to comprehend what he was getting himself into with Hadassah and her little _shrugs_. Those were her answers for _everything_. What movie do you wanna watch? Shrug. What would you like to eat? Shrug. Do you want to wear jeans or a dress today? Shrug. Do you have to go potty? Shrug.

This could go on forever.

Luckily, my Bella saved the day a second later when she started blinking her way back into awareness. When the blinking ceased, she sighed and stared at my father, a bored look on her face.

"Hello, Bella."

"Hey."

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine."

I felt a low rumble start in my chest then.

_Fine…I hated that fucking word._

Carlisle nodded and made a little side note about her nonchalance and relaxed manner.

"You're not nauseous?"

She shook her head.

"Fatigued?"

"No…"

"Confused…dizzy…irritab-"

"I said I'm _fine_!" she suddenly shot back in a curt tone.

He sighed and muttered, "Definitely irritable," under his breath as he wrote about her attitude in his journal.

He broke the tense silence a minute later when he clarified, "As I'm sure you've already figured out, this is an impromptu therapy session, dear. I just need to know how you are doing since coming home from the hospital this afternoon, and we can talk about any flashbacks or memories you may have had recently due to the two new arrivals."

My Bella brought her knees up to her chest then, resting her bare feet on the edge of the couch cushion. "Like I said, Carlisle - I'm fine," she started in a monotone. "I don't feel sick, but I do know why the new one is here…the two year old, whatever her name is," she muttered dismissively with a little wave of her hand.

Carlisle nodded. "Hadassah…" he trailed off.

"Right."

"And why's that, dear?"

She scoffed. "Because my father's a fucking _liar_! He left me alone at a snake show when I was two where a hobo with bad breath molested me while he visited with a buddy from work just a few feet away."

"Hmmm…" was my Sire's only response while I tried to process this new information.

Looks like Charlie will share the same fate as Renee, and I don't give a fuck what my mate says - her parents will pay for her pain with their lives.

That is final.

"Joey has shown me things, too…" she trailed off in a quiet voice then. "Things with camcorders…"

Joey's statement to me earlier came unbidden in my mind then; "_I don't like cameras and I'll break your camcorder if I ever find out you have one…_"

"…what things, Bella?" Carlisle asked when she didn't elaborate.

"Child pornography," she answered in that same hollow voice that I had reluctantly familiarized myself with.

I was beginning to realize that my Bella was extremely depressed. Yes, she was on that damn Prozac, but was it even working? Is it too early to tell?

I sighed, frustrated.

Whenever she comes around anymore, she's not happy. And she's never around long enough for me to cheer her up. Ever since her break down last week, she's been withdrawn and quiet and she's only gotten worse. Talking about the things of her past is only making it harder for her, I'm sure.

_Goddamn it, I hate therapy._

BPOV

**When is this douche bag gonna shut up so we can fucking leave? **Joey asked.

**I want my Edward** Isabella muttered.

**Doll, I swear to god, if my score on Mario Kart gets erased 'cause Doctor Dad couldn't wait to get his fix on our pain and torture, I'm gonna be pissed** Marie warned.

**What's up with Edward, anyway? We're friends, but we're not? He's my owner, but he's not? He's an authority figure, but he's not? Fucking. Confusing** Joey exclaimed.

**Dude, chill out. Edward's cool. He's ours. He likes to spank, though, so watch out for that. Other than that, he's cool **Marie placated.

**Spank? Like, 'if you don't stop being a rowdy little fucker, then I'm gonna bust your ass' type of spank? **Joey questioned.

**Yah-huh, but don't worry b'cuz you get lollies after and he never hits as hard as Daddy** Isabella offered.

I sat back and stared at Carlisle, listening to the back round noise in my mind and wondering when he would be done with his fucking analyzing. I hated his stupid, perfect, tenured voice. Almost as much as I was beginning to hate Edward's. It was grating on my nerves. That, and his irritating questions. Because like I said before, I hate him and his stupid fucking coven and I don't want to be here. I'm pissed off at my alternates too. Yeah…a lot of fucking good they are right now…they _always _leave me to deal with this therapy bullshit. I'm so fed up.

And goddamn it, I don't want to be here!

**I heard you the _first _time!** Marie mentally shouted back.

_Then fucking do something about it! Get your ass out here and deal with this shit. I don't want to look at his stupid face anymore. It's pissing me off._

**No can do, doll. I'm not talkin to him either.**

When all I got was mental silence from my other alternates, I sent a silent 'Fuck You' into my mind space, and launched into yet another damn therapy session. By myself.

_Goddamn it._

"I've been remembering some more details about my grandmother and her death…" I started.

Carlisle simply nodded for me to continue, as usual, so I did. I've found that continually talking through these pointless sessions makes the time go by faster anyway.

_When my granny died, the memorial service was horrible. I remember that there was no body, so there was no casket, just the silver urn of ashes and some flowers at the alter. There were a couple hundred people coming up to me, talking to me, pinching my cheeks, and then there were the grown-ups that were crying. I felt disconnected from everything. All the adults who had said that they loved my Grandmother Hadassah, my dear old granny - I hated them.  
__I thought, "How dare they say they love her. She belonged to me. I belonged to her. Granny, didn't you and I stand in the center of the universe?" Isabella and I hated all those people…people who had looked past our pain of a lifetime, and people who would just say nice things to me, then leave me with my father.  
__After the service, a couple of my Mom's friends took us to a movie. I sat through that movie about a carnival and marveled at the fact that somewhere in the world there were people who laughed when I was so devastated that I wanted to die. This was my first memory I have of wanting to be dead. That night, after the stupid, pointless carnival movie, I got down on my knees and I prayed to God.  
__I pleaded with Him. "Please let me die. Let me be with Granny. I can't live without her."  
__I was back in my room, consumed with two whole months worth of memories of taking care of her on her death bed, and when I awoke in the morning to the sunlight streaming in through my flowered curtains, I felt abandoned by God. There could be no God, I decided then._

I continued to stare at a jagged-shaped crack in the wall because it was better than looking at Carlisle's ridiculous face, and said the first thing that came to mind.

_After eight days of being in the hospital because of Jim's brutal sodomy, my Mom confronted me about him. She seemed to be done with her denial faze, where she had acted numb to it all. She talked to the police officers and the detectives, and then finally…she talked to me. I sat in the uncomfortable hospital bed and tried to ignore her questions and persistence, but when she shut off the cartoons on the TV and took my face in her hands, I had no choice but to focus on her.  
_"_Sunshine, tell me what Daddy did to you," she requested with her penetrating hazel eyes.  
_"_Like you fuckin care," Isabella mentally shot back as instant panic rose in me and I pleaded aloud, "I can't tell you, Mommy."  
_"_Yes!" she insisted. "You can talk to me. I want to know the truth. The real truth."  
__I began crying. "I can't tell you. Daddy will give me away to the bad men. He said I'll never see you again if I tell you."  
__She slowly sat down on the bed beside me and let her hands fall away from my face, down to her lap, as she chided, "Don't be ridiculous. Of course he can't give you away - how could you believe such a stupid thing?"  
__I looked at her incredulously.  
__Oh yes, he could.  
_"_You don't know what Dad is like!" I shot back, startling her. At her surprised look, another sob tore through me. "You just don't know…" I cried.  
_"_He hurt you sometimes, didn't he?"  
_"_Please don't make me tell you…"  
__Mom took my cold little hands and cupped them in her big ones, then said, "I mean it, Isabella Marie," she stated with conviction. "I want to know, and I absolutely promise you that Jim cannot give you to any 'bad men'. I would never let him give you away," she promised.  
__I thought of just how much she really didn't know and started crying harder. "Mommy, you'll be mad," I warned in a shaky voice.  
_"_Sweetheart, for God's sake, cut this out and just answer my questions!" she demanded, her patience wearing thin.  
__I was disintegrating under the persistent interrogation. Too much pain had been held in for too long. I was certain that there would be major acts of revenge if Daddy ever found out that I had talked, but I launched into my tale anyway, hoping somewhere in the back of my mind that Daddy would finally snap when he found out and that he would finally kill me…put me out of my fucking misery.  
__I told Mom about the basement, the summer that I spent locked in my room, the times I was tied up and bound with the blue scarves, and graphically told her about the pins, the needle and thread, and the ice pick. In my tears, I spared her nothing. I was oblivious to her as she sat staring at me on the hospital bed. I was bubbling forth the horror that was my life all the times that she went away…all the times that she left me with him.  
__Suddenly, there was a choking sound, and I focused on Mommy. Great big tears were rolling down the cheeks on her twisted face. Our eyes met and held. Before I knew it, her head was in my tiny lap and her arms wrapped around the small of my back. She was hugging me tightly and sobbing these great, wracking, noisy sobs. I was dressed in a small pink hospital gown, and her tears were getting my bare legs all wet.  
__I was at a complete loss for the good part of ten minutes. Isabella just looked on with disgust and hatred, assuring me that our Mommy deserved to cry. She delighted in the horrible sounds…she smiled at my mother's desperate wails of anger, pain, and remorse. Eventually, I tried to comfort my Mom by stroking her hair. I remember the stickiness of her hairspray. It took an eternity for her to regain some semblance of control, and a nurse even came by to shut the door so that we wouldn't disturb the apparent peace and serenity of their hallways any longer.  
__She just cried, "I didn't know. I didn't know. My poor baby girl. My precious baby."  
__I just stared at her, a little bewildered and a lot confused, and not being able to offer her any words of acknowledgement, or comfort, because she _**_did _**_know. Maybe not all the gory details, but she knew enough. She had taken Dad to the mental hospital, checked me for signs of injury, and hired Ruth, bodyguard and nanny extraordinaire. She knew _**_something _**_was going on. My mind automatically blocked out those thoughts though, and took a completely different path, because apparently, I was desperate and wanted to believe Mom's pleading words and promises of ignorance. _

"I know better now, though…I know that she chose to overlook certain…_things_…to make her relationship with her boyfriend work. I hate her now."

He raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. "You hate her?"

_Did I fucking stutter?_

I gave a curt nod and refrained from rolling my eyes. "Yes," I reiterated.

"When did this happen?" he asked, baffled because I usually showed loyalty towards my mother in these useless therapy sessions of his.

"Just now."

He sighed. "You're not usually one to hate, Bella…" he trailed off quietly, looking somewhat concerned.

I did roll my eyes this time. "Yeah, well - a lot of shit's changed, Doctor Carlisle. It would seem that I hate a lot of people now," I informed him, pointedly staring at him with a slight glare.

_Nosy bastard._

After a minute of silently staring at each other, he subtly nodded for me to continue.

"Anyways…"

_Later, when she stopped crying and was blowing her nose on the tacky flowery handkerchief she always carried around with her, she asked, "Why didn't you tell me before? How could you suffer so much in silence?"  
__I ignored her question and instead warned her with pleading, watery eyes, "Mommy, if you tell Daddy that I told you, he'll hurt me. You just don't understand." Now I was crying again and deeply alarmed at the enormity of what I had just done.  
__Mom almost suffocated me in her intense hug as she reassured me, "I promise you, you'll never be hurt again. Forgive me, baby."  
__I didn't know why she wanted me to forgive _**_her_**_, she had never hurt me, and now I felt terrified, rather than assured. We sat in silence, both distractedly watching TV or doing our own things until I got discharged from the hospital later that day. I noticed that Mom seemed oddly withdrawn and I worried that she was somehow angry with me.  
__When we got home, Mom burst into the house. Daddy was still there with Bobby, and I don't know why he was, but he was. I guess the cops in that town are all just a bunch of lazy pricks, but that's beside the point. Mom told me to go upstairs and pack all my things in a suitcase. She yelled to Bobby and told him to pack his stuff, as well. I went upstairs, totally mystified and anxious that I had done something terribly wrong in telling my Mom the truth. Then I could hear the shouting, crying, and crashing noises from my parents' bedroom. The angry words were muffled behind closed doors, but I knew a violent eruption was taking place in our lives.  
__With shaky legs and a bloody lip, Mom threw our suitcases in the trunk of the car and ordered me and Bobby into the backseat. We wordlessly complied with wide eyes, completely uncertain of our impending fate. Without even saying goodbye to Daddy, who, by the way, had come running out onto the lawn, screaming obscene, hateful profanities about revenge and how dare my mother take his kids away from him, Mom squealed the tires, racing out of the driveway. Bobby and I didn't dare speak. We stayed buckled in and tightly held each other's hands, staring at the back of Mom's head in silence. We didn't know what was going on.  
__Mom took us to a beautiful hotel with a swimming pool, and a television in the big room.  
__Mom sat on the bed with us and said, "Kids, we're leaving Daddy." At our questioning gazes, she muttered quietly to herself, "I should have taken you guys away a long time ago. I had enough evidence and clues…"  
__Again, I chose to ignore this particular comment when she suddenly broke out into those loud sobs again. Isabella just rolled her eyes at my mother's dramatics.  
__Her voice cracking, she said, "Why couldn't you have told me? What did he do to you guys for you to just keep silent like this? I'm sorry. I'm sorry."  
__We hugged her as she cried, and then all three of us were crying. Bobby was partly crying because he didn't want to leave Daddy.  
_"_I'm sorry, it's my fault," I said through my tears. "I didn't mean to be bad."  
_"_Bella, there's nothing you could have done to deserve what's happened to you. Jim had no right to do what he did to you," Mom quickly assured me with a kiss to my forehead.  
__The next day, while Bobby and I were at school, Mom went apartment hunting. We moved into a big beautiful apartment that already had white furniture in it. There was no feeling of elation at leaving Jim. We felt confused, upset, and responsible, but Mom tried to rally up our sagging spirits. She played games with us, took us to the park, and took us out for cheeseburgers and icecream.  
_"_When are we going back to Daddy?" I asked one night over dinner.  
_"_Never," was her adamant reply.  
__It was a big concept. No Daddy. No big house. No basement. No abuse. Belief in my safety did not come quickly, for Isabella and the others did not allow it. We kept expecting Daddy to burst through the door and drag us home. Mommy forbade me and Bobby from answering the cell phone when the caller ID lit up as being the number from the State Penitentiary. She said that Daddy could never know where we were. _

_Mommy still had to work, so the care of Bobby and the cooking fell on me. I thrived on being made to feel important and special. Bobby didn't know how to cook and we had laughter-filled evenings as the two of us tried our best to cook dinner and figure out how to do laundry. My heart sang with pleasure as I walked the mile home from school, knowing that there was no hostility waiting for me. I gained weight rapidly in my new environment and my clothes no longer hung loosely off my thin frame.  
__Mom must have made a real effort to cut back on business to be with us, because for the first time in our lives, she came home regularly for dinner. I don't remember any business trips, although on a few occasions when she was late, she had a man named Mark come stay with us. He wore casual clothes and smelled of cigarettes and cologne.  
__Sometimes he was there when Mom wasn't home, and even though Mark was nice enough, we felt cautious…wary. I was crushed when I saw her kiss him. Isabella repeatedly called her a nigger-lovin whore, even though Mark wasn't black, but Italian. Bobby and I were nice to Mark because he always tried so hard to be nice to us. We tried to ignore the fact that he was the intruder, invading in our safe, new environment.  
__He bought me my first tube of lipstick and took me shopping for my first pair of high-heeled shoes, even though my mother objected to an eight year old looking so grown up. He protested, saying that I was a beautiful girl and should have beautiful things. Daddy had bought me beautiful things, too…I had plenty of expensive dresses and jewelry already. They were all from him…and all of it was there to dress me up for his friends and his camera. I tried to focus on the fact that Mark had never hurt me and accepted his gifts graciously, like a __normal __girl would have, even though I was anything but normal. Isabella loved the lipstick. Cassandra loved the shoes._

_When summer came, I was very self-conscious about the burn scars on my legs, so while Mom was at work, Mark showed me how to use her bottle of foundation to cover the scars so that I could wear things like bathing suits and shorts. He smiled and said that it was our little secret because Mom's bottle of foundation was very expensive, apparently.  
__Like Jim, Mark eventually turned into a father figure/care giver. And I knew that he knew about Daddy by the way he acted. He was always so careful, so kind…but at the same time, it was like he was walking on eggshells around me. When he would touch me in the beginning, it would only be because he had to, and the touch would always be very feather-light; not threatening in any kind of way. Eventually, he would hold me on his lap for bedtime stories right before he would tuck me in on the nights that Mom would work late. He never hurt me. Never even yelled at me. It was very weird and unsettling because it was in such great contrast from what I was used to with Jim, but at the same time, it was a relief.  
__That summer before fourth grade, when I was eight, I was very happy. I don't even remember really thinking about Daddy. We hadn't really wanted to go see him in jail and Mom didn't make us. The few times that we __had __seen him, it was only because of his rights over Bobby, and it was tearful and emotional and I was upset for days afterward. Unlike me, Bobby had mixed loyalties, and he missed Daddy and our big house. But that summer, we felt free to swim and play and ride our bikes around town. Susannah could come to play at our apartment and she even spent the night a few times. _

"Now…Susannah - you've mentioned her before, right?" Carlisle asked, interrupting me.

"Yeah. She was the chick who helped me and Bobby with our lemonade stand that one time. I liked her, but Isabella didn't," I reminded him, even though I didn't see the point.

Susannah was not vital to _any _of this.

He nodded and gave a little wave of his hand, signaling for me to continue.

I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling and did just that, wondering how long Marie would make me suffer through this.

_Two weeks before school started back up, the four of us went to Baja, California, so that we could go camping on the west side near Scamon's Lagoon. Mom, Mark, Bobby, and I slept in a hot tent and bathed in the ocean. We caught lobsters and abalones and bought vegetables from the Mexicans. It was a long trip on the potholed road, but a trip that will always live in my mind as the epitome of joy. I was stung by a jellyfish, sunburned, and stuck with a fish hook, but every moment was fun with my Mom.  
__She and Mark made everything an adventure. Mark speared a halibut and Bobby learned to skin-dive with us. The four of us would take our masks, snorkels, and spears around the rocks and seaweed gardens, and catch our dinner. It was a magical fairy land under the sea.  
__I do not remember Isabella or any of the others during those happy times. What lives in my mind are the campfires, the stories, the interesting Mexicans that I'd never seen before, and my elation at no longer being tormented. I was loved. I could _**_feel _**_it. Mom constantly communicated it to us.  
__Mom was bigger than life to me. She was my savior, not just my mother. I'm certain there is no love more intense than the love an abused child has for the 'safe' parent. I worshipped her. I studied everything about her and worked to please her. A sense of humor began to develop between all of us. Bobby and I had been oppressed by Daddy for so long, that we had to learn how to laugh. Mom made a big effort to make life fun and funny. Our fun was no longer play-acting to cover up the pain and abuse…it was genuine.  
__She never spoke of Daddy or the abuse that summer; it was as though we were all beginning a new chapter in our lives. Bobby and I were very close. We had lived through hell together, so we looked out for each other as only survivors do, and we barely ever fought. Summer went by too quickly though, and I resented the tight Mary Jane shoes and the new plaid skirts for school. I wanted to camp forever. _

"And how was school that year, Bella? I imagine it was a great deal different from your other grade school classes…" he trailed off.

I slowly looked away from the wall and turned my gaze over to Carlisle…the useless Sire of it all. "Why? 'Cause there was no Jim?" I asked.

He gave me a small nod and had a knowing look on his face that made me want to get up and smack him. "Precisely."

I gritted my teeth and sighed through my sudden flare of anger and irritation. Just because I was away from Jim, didn't mean that my life didn't still suck. I had told him that before. "Fourth grade was good, I guess…I did fairly well that year…"

_My self-confidence was growing because I was taking care of Mom and my brother. I felt needed, I guess. I was getting lavished with constant praise and encouragement from my Mom and her boyfriend, Mark. My grades were good. Joey and I were not ditching.  
__But Mark stopped coming around in the late Fall and Christmas was terrible that year. We had to go see Jim, and it was a traumatizing, tearful event for both Bobby and me, and ended in a terrible shouting match between our parents.  
__I was so upset at seeing Daddy that I ran out of the jail's monitored visiting room and vomited in the big building's hallway.  
__Sunshine wanted to find a basement or a closet and retreat into the dark womb of the forgotten and familiar.  
__Isabella wanted to take a butcher knife and plunge it into Daddy, just the sight of him filling her with rage.  
__I was miserable knowing how much I still wanted Daddy to love me and that he never would or could. He greeted Bobby with hugs and enthusiasm and was merely polite to me. I didn't want to even be near him and remember the feelings of pain and rejection. _

"Bella…dear, are you alright? You haven't said anything in nearly seven minutes," Carlisle finally pointed out after I had stopped talking.

"I'm fine."

_And if I have to inform you of my 'fine status' one more time, I swear I'm gonna scream bloody murder, you useless fucking bloodsucker. Get your head outta your ass and grow a pair, Carlisle. How can you call yourself a Sire, but allow your coven to leave me behind…unprotected? I almost died while you were away. The only reason I'm alive is because of a drug-dealing werewolf. Drop the façade Mr. Cullen; you don't give a shit about me, and I hate you. I hate your coven. So just leave me alone._

These things I said silently in my mind, knowing that my alternates would be able to hear me and that they would understand my overwhelming need to vent because they are all I have left now.

They'll never leave me.

Aloud, I went on and amused my mate's Sire with this goddamned therapy session like a good little human.

I swear, Carlisle only feels useful when he's helping weaker beings, or mending broken things. But, contrary to his pathetic coven's beliefs, I am _not _broken, so he's wasting his motherfucking time. He can't fix me.

I don't need to be fixed.

**That's right, Bell **Marie piped up. **You're perfect. You're such a pretty, sweet Bell. _My _Bell. So fucking pretty…** her lilting voice trailed off in the back round of my mind then.

I focused on the mellowed murmur of voices in my head then, and let it dull the ache that had gathered there.

There's always this back round noise in my head now, like I have the station in my truck tuned to talk radio, or something. I could let it play in the back round and let it go unnoticed, or I could choose to focus on certain topics of discussion.

Right now, the voices were blurred and faded, so I let my gaze slowly travel over to the bookshelves that my Joey-self had massacred not so long ago, and went on with my stories. "I remember when Bobby left me…"

**Bubby-Bobby…** Isabella's loud whisper echoed inside my head then.

_The bell had rung for school dismissal, but Bobby wasn't there waiting for me to walk home from school. I guessed that he had gotten a ride from a friend's parent, or that he went home sick earlier that day, but when I got home, I went to his room and he wasn't there. He was just gone…and so were half of his things. No note. No good-bye.  
__Mom kept rambling on about child services and foster homes.  
__"What the fuck is a foster home?" I had asked.  
__I didn't understand what was going on, or where my brother went. I threw myself onto my bed, sobbing in anger and abandonment. Why didn't he take me with him? Where had Bobby gone?  
__It was in this moment of indescribable loss that my Joey personality resurfaced into domination. He had been around for a while, but this is the first time I really took notice of him. He was my age at the time, just eight years old, but he was big and strong and very angry.  
__He went into Bobby's room and smashed it all into a pile of rubble. The baseball trophies, the radio, the TV, his stacks of comic books and sports magazines…_**_everything _**_was demolished. With Bobby's big hunting knife, Joey slashed the sheets and gutted the mattress. He put on Bobby's clothes and boots, stomping through the house in his rage and terrifying my mother, who had watched it all. _

"Joey and Isabella were the only personalities in me who were capable of violence. It was the rage from all the years of torture," I explained.

"Mm-hmm…" came Carlisle's hummed reply.

"My Joey-self liked loud music, sports, and masculine things. I know now that he never grew past the age of ten, and that he stays locked in the angry emotions of abandonment."

Carlisle nodded and continued to write in his journal, so I rolled my eyes and continued on, as well.

_I bet he's just drawing in that thing. Why does he need to write any of this down anyway? He's got vampire memory. _

I pushed that thought aside and stated pointedly, "Him and Marie are very much alike in the sense that she surfaced when _you all _abandoned me."

At this, he finally looked up from his writings and focused on me.

My piercing gaze never wavered from his as I said, "They are both very hurt, insecure, and defensive people…basically, they are waiting to be left behind again."

* * *

A/N:

_hasst_: hates ... _ausrotten_: exterminate ... _Arzt_: doctor

Okay, so if it isn't glaringly obvious yet, Bella is depressed. When she is around, it won't be a happy time. Remember, she is healing...notice how she is filled with a lot of anger right now? And how a lot of that anger is directed towards the Cullens? Those are usually Marie's feelings, but our Bella is experiencing them for the first time now.

It's all apart of the process, kids.

Alright sweets, leave me a review!


	6. Kick Me, Spank Me, Pull My Hair

**A/N:**

Hi!

It's been a while, but guess what?

It's story time, kids!

Oh yeah, go to my profile and follow my twitter, and my blogs, and my facebook, and did ya know that I recently did an author interview? ! OMG, I know, right? So exciting. Go read it, sweets!

Links are on the profile.

PS. Thanks for your words of support and your patience :)

I'M BACK

* * *

EPOV

"Bella…"

"No, Edward."

"Bella, just-"

"Go _away_, Edward."

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"_Yes_!"

"Bella, get in the car," I demanded, getting fed up now.

She raised her eyebrows and gave a stiff shake of her head, still refusing to make eye contact with me. "No," she stated with finality, and kept walking down the dark, paved road.

I was slowly creeping beside her in my Volvo. It was at this point that I finally gave in to the urge to roll my eyes at her childish insolence.

I risked a glance at the clock and realized that it was nearing 11pm, before I set my determined gaze back on my mate.

She had decided to go for a little walk after her therapy session with my Sire, but I refused to let her walk out here alone in the dark. Well, I used the 'dark' as an excuse…but really, I couldn't give a fuck about her privacy. I don't care whether it's pitch black or bright as the sun with pretty little rainbows in the sky, she is _not _walking anywhere by herself.

And that's final.

I took a deep breath and decided to try one more time. "Bella-"

"No," she clipped, cutting me off.

I gritted my teeth. "Get. In. The. Car."

There was a brief moment of silence before she swallowed audibly and growled in a hoarse voice, "Fuck. Off."

_That's it!_

I slammed on my brakes, not that I really needed to, or anything; I had only been going like 2mph, then threw my car in park, and got out, leaving the driver's side door open as I walked around the hood of my car to retrieve to my indignant, disobedient love.

"No!" she protested as I came up behind her and wrapped one arm around her waist, picking her up with ease.

I walked at a human pace with her fighting, flailing body held against of mine, and headed for the back passenger door of my car. I made sure to land six very awkward, but precise swats to her backside before I promptly, but gently, threw her into the backseat and activated the childlock mechanism before she could make a run for it.

I moved at my natural pace then, wanting to get back in my seat and close my car door before she realized it was still open and went for that exit route instead. When I slid into my seat, she began kicking the back of it; angry wet tears streaming down her beautiful, rosy cheeks.

"I hate you." _*kick*_

"You _and _your coven." _*kick*_

I furrowed my brow as a loud sob tore through her throat and focused on her tear-stained face in the rearview mirror while I pulled my car back onto the street and started for home. "Why?" I asked softly…apprehensively.

_Maybe Joey wasn't so far off in his assumption then _I thought sadly.

"You _left _me!" she screamed then. _*kick* *kick* *kick* *kick* *kick* *kick* *kick* *kick*_

Her kicks were getting more forceful now; both of her feet in perfect unison with each other…she was using the soles of her shoes to stomp on the back of my seat.

I just sighed through the beginning of her tantrum…a first for my Bella, I might add, but then she leaned forward and smacked me, making contact with my right ear and cheek.

"Ow!"

_Damn it._

She had foolishly hurt herself more than me with that ridiculously soft blow. She should've known better.

"Bella! Stop it. Just stop it right now!" I yelled, reaching back and gently grabbing her wrist, preventing her from hurting herself any further.

She immediately tried pulling her wrist out of my grip. "I hate you!" _*kick*_

"Bella, stop - you're going to hurt yourself."

"You hit me _first_!" she insisted with yet another kick, still trying to yank her wrist free.

I growled before I could stop myself, then hit the brakes and turned around in my seat to face my mate. "You're damn right I spanked that ass, and you're fuckin lucky I don't pull over and put you over my knee right now, young lady. Stop," I demanded in a low voice.

She didn't respond, just continued to cry. I watched her for a minute, fixing her with a hard stare, as the fight in her right arm diminished and she was no longer trying to pull her wrist out of my hand to hit me again. Her kicks had also come to a halt, so I slowly loosened my grip on her hand and let it fall freely to her lap.

"I love you," I said then, speaking in a clear voice over her distressed and distorted cries.

I saw how she rolled her tired eyes and fixed her watery stare out the car window as another sob wracked her small frame.

"I do, Bella. I love you…very much," I assured her, softening my features. "And yes, I did leave. I left because I was stupid. I thought that I was doing the right thing by you…you already know this. Baby, I may have been away, but that doesn't mean that I _ever _stopped loving you."

Her only response was more crying and a hiccup as she determinedly avoided my gaze.

I picked up her sore hand and brought it to my lips then, giving each knuckle a soft kiss. She didn't fight me, so I focused on her distracted eyes and watched each little teardrop fall as I pressed my lips to her warm skin again, and again, and again…whispering an apology with each kiss, until of all of her tiny knuckles had been comforted.

_Sorry, love._

I didn't know how many times I could apologize for leaving her before it finally sunk in that I was truly repentant and remorseful, but I would continue to say my daily "sorry" to my Bella until her little heart was content.

It didn't escape my notice that she seemed to be the only one that was holding a grudge…her alternates, Marie included, barely even mentioned it.

After I gently set her hand back down in her lap, I faced forward again and continued the journey home. She was obviously very upset and extremely tired, hence her childish fit earlier; I needed to get her home ASAP so that she could relax in a warm bath and lay in bed at her leisure.

I cringed and sighed at the sounds of my mate's distress, then finally decided to try and hum in an attempt to sooth her, but my poor Bella just continued to incoherently cry and sob, so I eventually stopped with the damn humming and just held my breath, both at the wretched anxiety in my chest, and the distinct salt in her tears.

When we finally made it back to the mansion, Bella, still teary-eyed and cranky, avoided the questions and concerned gazes of my coven, and insisted that she wanted some "alone time", so I complied, more agreeable to the idea of her having some privacy now that she was home and under the same roof as me.

I still didn't like it, it was still bullshit…her being away from me and in a separate room, but I was more _agreeable_. I guess that's all that mattered.

I tried relaxing and spending time with my brothers in a rowdy round of Halo on the Xbox, but my mind and senses stayed focused on the fragile girl two floors above me.

I knew that her heartbreaking sobs had stopped, but I worried and wondered if she was still upset…if she still 'hated' me. I listened to her bathing…the soothing sounds of water raining down on her soft skin as she stayed under the warm spray for forty-three minutes and eighteen seconds; I was stiff the entire time though, remembering my baby love's inability to deal with the pounding spray from a shower head, and listened for any signs of Isabella's whimpers, but they never came...my Bella had stuck around for her entire shower, and for that, I was thankful. I continually and methodically…almost religiously breathed in her intoxicating, sweet, and clean scent. I listened to her heartbeat and breathing levels. I wondered if she was relaxed or tired enough to go to sleep yet…it was nearing one o'clock in the morning, after all.

I worried…

"Dude, are you even paying attention?" Emmett barked, breaking me out of my reverie.

I looked at the game stats on the flat screen and saw that my guy had died seven times…yes, I was definitely distracted.

"Get your head in the game, bro," Jasper chimed in.

"Leave her alone for an _hour_…can you do that?" Emmett asked.

"Yeah, Edward…give her some space, man," Jasper readily agreed, fully aware and knowledgeable of my mate's emotions at the moment: sad, overwhelmed, and embarrassed.

I furrowed my brow, frustrated because they wouldn't let me get a word in, and pissed because _my _Bella was none of _their _business.

"Fuck off," I growled, throwing the controller down and heading for my piano.

I plopped down on the bench, then fiddled around with some music paper and tinkered with the keys a bit, but eventually just huffed and paused all of my movements, thoroughly frustrated with my current shitty situation. I want Bella. _My _Bella. My _mate_. I barely _ever _get to see her anymore, and she's _finally _out, right fucking now, right this fucking second, but she _doesn't _want to see me!

_Fuck my life._

After a few minutes of silent thought and eerie stillness, my fingers lithely found their way to the piano keys on their own, and my Bella's lullaby filled the stale air mere seconds later. I had unconsciously chosen that tune, so I decided to just go with it, simultaneously allowing myself to relax at the familiar, comforting melody, and giving my Bella a reminder of my love from a distance…a two-story distance.

Hopefully, it would relax her as well; it was way past her bedtime.

Two lullabies, Esme's song, and Mary Had A Little Lamb later, I finally said, "Fuck it," and went upstairs…only to find Hadassah under the bed. She was laying on her back while she traced the top of the box spring with her little fingertip.

"Hey…" I greeted as I joined her under there, mimicking her position.

"Hi," she whispered.

I smiled, glad that she was talking to me, even if my Bella wouldn't. "What are you doin, angel?" I whispered back.

"Hidin…"

"Why are you hiding?"

"B'cuz I'm scared…"

"Why are you scared?"

"B'cuz I'm in trouble," she replied, chancing a glance at me with her little whispered statement.

I raised my eyebrows questioningly, wondering what she could have possibly done that I didn't know about. "…why are you in trouble?" I asked after a moment of silence.

She traced a tiny crack on the wood surface for six seconds before she answered me, with great apprehension and wide eyes, I might add. "B'cuz I spilled my bubbles…"

I cracked a small smile, amused by her adorable expression and wanting to alleviate her fears. "How did they spill…what happened?"

She subtly shrugged. "I was blowin 'em, and the bottle was by my feetsies, and when I moved, it got spillded over…Isabella said to hide from the spankins, so I came under here."

I chuckled lightly and leaned to the side a bit to give her forehead a quick kiss, and smooth some damp curls out of her eyes.

_I'll have to brush it in a minute _I thought with a smile.

"Well, how about you show me where they spilled?" I suggested, keeping my voice soft to match her little whispers.

She nodded eagerly and proceeded to slide out from underneath the bed, so I followed suite. When we were standing side by side, she gently took my hand in her own and tugged me toward the toy corner on the other side of the room.

Slowly, we approached the side of her purple toy box, and when we were at the site of the accident, she apprehensively pointed a little left pinky finger toward the puddle on the hardwood floor. The red tipped over Mr. Bubbles bottle confirmed that, yes…the small puddle on the floor was clearly bubble-blowing solution.

She hung her head in shame and sniffled a little bit then. "Sorry…" she whispered, her Rs still sounding like Ws.

I subtly shook my head and put my index finger under her chin, tilting her face up to meet mine. "I know, baby…but you know what?" I said, making sure to keep my voice soft.

"Huh?" she breathed.

"This was an accident, and an accident means that you didn't mean to make the mess. You're not in trouble," I assured her.

She shook her head a little. "M'not?" she asked curiously.

I shook my head as well and gave her a small smile. "Nope."

She smiled back, but remained silent as I bent down to retrieve the tipped over, empty bottle. "Hadassah, baby…you're going to be my helper girl, huh?"

"Mm-hmm," she hummed, nodding enthusiastically at the prospect of 'helping'.

I gave her a reassuring smile, letting her know that I was happy with her answer. "Good."

"Good," she repeated.

I chuckled and held the bottle out to her. "Okay so, you need to throw this in the trash and get me a few paper towels from the bathroom, sweetheart. We need to clean this up."

She nodded, then took the bottle from my hand and asked, "Trash?"

I nodded my assent, but she persisted with raised eyebrows and a higher pitched voice this time. "In the potty room?" she squeaked.

"Yes, baby…in the potty room," I confirmed.

"Kay."

She turned and headed for the 'potty room' then, and I waited patiently for her to return with the paper towels, so that I could wipe up this simple, little mess…

…except she didn't come back with any paper towels.

"Hadassah," I called out when she started heading for the bed.

She paused her movements and focused her attention on me. "Hm?"

"Paper towels, baby…I need paper towels," I reminded her.

She subtly shrugged. "But dunno where…" she trailed off with a slow shake of her head, the wet tips of her brown hair sticking to her chin.

I furrowed my brow. "You don't know where they are?" I asked.

She shook her head again, but remained silent as she stared over at me from her side of the bed.

I sighed, reminding myself to be patient with the two year old. "In the bathroom, sweetie," I repeated slowly. "They are in the bathroom."

"Ed-ward?" she hesitated.

"Yes?"

"Wha's a paper towel?"

I chuckled and shook my head, standing from my position on the floor. "Never mind, angel…you lay down. It's past your bedtime."

She nodded and did as she was told, crawling up onto the large bed while I passed by her to go into the bathroom. While I was in there, I ripped off three sheets from the roll underneath the sink and grabbed the hair brush off the counter.

"Here baby, hold this…" I told her, offering her the brown brush.

She took it from me with a silent, yet questioning gaze.

"When I'm done cleaning up the mess, I'm gonna brush your hair," I explained.

She didn't respond, but sat up and watched me as I swiftly and efficiently wiped the hardwood surface clear of all bubble-blowing solution. When I passed by her to go to the bathroom and throw the soaked paper towel away, she started whimpering…I paused my steps and looked at her just in time for that small whimper to turn into a cry.

I dropped the paper towel on the ground and went to her side. "What's wrong?" I asked, perplexed.

"W-want my…m-my buuubblesss," she cried, pitiful tears beginning to stream down her rosy cheeks.

I sighed. "You have a new bottle in your toy box, baby…don't cry," I pleaded.

"D-don't th-throoow 'em awaaay…" she begged, then started to sob. Tiny fists began to curl as she brought them to her face and wiped her tears away. She looked up at me once her eyesight was clear again, and sniffled…then pouted her bottom lip and quivered her little chin at me.

"Hadassah…" I trailed off, unsure of what to say. I had to throw the paper towel away. There was no way I was letting my baby play with trash. "Baby, it'll be okay. You have a whole new bottle of Mr. Bubbles in your toy box. The bubbles on this paper towel…?" I trailed off, picking the towel back up and showing it to her. "These bubbles are all gone and used up…they went bye-byes and now it's time for the paper towel to go in the trash," I tried to explain.

"Nooo…" she cried, and even went as far as to dramatically place her face in her hands as she mourned the loss of her bubbles.

That's when I realized that her crying was really more about her being tired than about some spilled bubbles.

I sighed and quickly threw the paper towel in the trash, then went to my baby's side to offer a comforting shoulder to cry on…and probably sleep on. "C'mere…" I said as I picked her up and brought her to my chest.

She clung to me, wrapping her arms and legs around my upper body and continued to cry and mumble about her bubbles and how they went bye-bye and how she misses them and how it's not fair.

_Aw._

I just caressed and softly patted her back, trying to pacify her while she calmed herself down. I even hummed, figuring that it would work for my two year old, even if it hadn't worked for my eighteen year old. Eventually, I reached for an actual pacifier on the shelf in the closet and offered it to my very upset, very exhausted baby girl.

As I continued to pace my usual route on the floor, Hadassah's cries gradually stopped, but she reverted to grabbing the hair at the back of my neck and pulling on it. It didn't hurt…in fact, it felt similar to how Bella or Marie would pull my hair as we kissed, but I knew that that wasn't what Hadassah was aiming for.

Maybe she's trying to get my attention?

I paused my methodic steps and turned my head slightly to the side so that I could look at her. Her pink pacifier, that matched her short pink nightgown by the way, was subtly moving against her lips, and she had a frustrated look on her face.

"…what is it, baby?"

Her response was another tug on my hair.

"No…" I trailed off a bit sternly in admonishment. "You don't pull people's hair, Hadassah. That's not nice."

She whined in the back of her throat.

"What is it?" I questioned. "Talk to me, angel…do you want something? Are you thirsty? Hungry? Do you want a snack?"

She shrugged and whined and pulled on my hair…all at the same time.

I gave the outside of her bare thigh a light tap. "I said _no_, Hadassah. Don't pull people's hair. If I have to tell you again, you're going in time-out," I warned.

She started crying again and yanked harder on the small hairs by my ear this time, so I gave her a brief glimpse of my 'stern-face', then turned in the direction of the time-out corner. When I set her down on her feet, I landed one firm swat to her bottom and instructed in a stern voice, "You stay here for _two _minutes, Hadassah. You're in a time-out. When you're done, you can take that binky out of your mouth and tell me what's wrong, _without _all the hair pulling, or it can go in the trash."

She immediately sank down to the ground, sitting Indian-style in front of the corner, then buried her face in her hands and continued to cry her little sobs that were consequentially being muffled by that little pink pacifier in her mouth.

I furrowed my brow and stared at her small form on the floor, wracking my brain for anything that could possibly be bothering her right now…why couldn't she just talk to me and tell me what's wrong? Why did she have to pull my hair and then disobey me by doing it again after I told her not to? Why was she choosing to be naughty at…

_Christ, it's 2:13 in the morning? _

I blinked at the digital clock on our nightstand.

I know she's tired. Hmm…maybe I should just tuck her in bed when her two minutes are up.

"Edward?"

I sighed and plucked a tissue out of it's box for my little girl. "Yes, Isabella?"

It had only been one minute and twenty-eight seconds. Hadassah was still supposed to be in time-out.

"I get'ta get outta the corner now, huh?" my baby asked, surprisingly calm and tear-free, as opposed to how drastic Hadassah was being just a second earlier.

"Yes," I stated in my own calm voice, relieved that my mate's cries had stopped.

She giggled and promptly hopped up from her seated position on the floor, then immediately came over to me for a hug.

I wrapped my arms around her small form and picked her back up, relishing in her warmth, listening to her little giggles in my ear, and enjoying one of my favorite hugs. She pulled back a little bit to gently rub her button nose against my cold one, and I smiled, feeling her chest's heartbeat against my own.

"I love you," she cooed, handing over her pink pacifier...her subtle reminder that it was bedtime.

"I _adore _you, baby love," I countered, stuffing the baby accessory into my pocket.

She laughed as she gently wiped her eyes and cheeks with the soft tissue. "A _door_? What's that mean?" she asked with a furrowed brows and puzzled little smile.

I gave her a knowing look. "Means that I love you and I think you're adorable."

She giggled as she half-heartedly blew her nose.

All by herself.

Like a big girl.

I usually hold the tissue for her, but…but…

_She didn't need me to do it…_

"Oh!" she chirped, but then she yawned, effectively cutting off any playful comebacks she had from coming out.

Right.

My baby's tired. And apparently, growing up.

I sighed despondently and focused back on the task of Bedtime to try and clear my thoughts.

I brushed my lips across her cheek and softened both my features, and my voice. "You tired, angel?"

She nodded and rubbed her right eye with a small fist.

I nodded in return and started making my way over to the bed. "Okay sweetness, let's get your hair brushed."

"Kay," she sighed.

I sat her down on the bed, then quickly went about the task of picking out a movie for her to watch while I diligently worked out all the tangles that had subsequently gathered in her damp hair. While I was standing by our TV and scanning the titles in our large DVD collection, Isabella exclaimed the words, "Lion King!" so I immediately reached for that DVD and loaded the disc into the player.

When the opening credits started, I made sure the volume was set to low, then came back to bed and took my usual position behind her. She crawled into my lap, and as she lay back against my chest, I ran the first experimental brush stroke through her messy hair.

"Edward?"

"Yeah?" I responded, trying to be as gentle as possible while I worked through the various tangles.

See, _this _is why I need to brush her hair as soon as she gets out the bath…or the shower, in this case. But, _nooo_…my Bella is stubborn and insisted on 'alone time' tonight.

Never again.

"Dassah in trouble?" she asked curiously in a small voice.

I subtly shook my head. I had come to expect this line of questioning from her, and she clearly wasn't going to disappoint tonight. Baby Love always seems so concerned and questions whenever any of the 'others', besides herself, gets in trouble. "No," I whispered behind her ear, trying to keep the atmosphere quiet and relaxed.

"She got spankins…" she trailed off, somewhat accusingly.

"That's right. I spanked her bottom one time and she was put in the corner for two minutes. She didn't listen when I told her that she wasn't allowed to pull hair. You know that not listening gets you into trouble, Isabella," I pointed out.

She subtly nodded and quietly hummed, "Mm-hmm…"

"Mm-hmm, but that's over, baby girl…Hadassah is not in trouble anymore," I assured her.

"Edward?"

"Hmm?

"She pullded on your hair b'cuz she was mad at you…" Isabella whispered then.

I furrowed my brow.

_Why?_

"Why was she mad at me?"

"B'cuz her bubbles went goodbye-byes, but you didn't let her _say _goodbye-bye to 'em," she told me, as if it should have been obvious.

I rolled my eyes, aware that Isabella couldn't see me, and sighed. "Well then, she should have _told _me that, instead of pulling my hair when I told her not to. Not listening will _always _get you in trouble, baby girl…remember that."

"Kay," she relented with a short nod.

I continued to brush her hair and was satisfied when four minutes and thirty eight seconds later, it was all smooth and soft and dry and tangle-free.

_I rock._

I smiled and set the brush down on the nightstand, then switched off the bedside lamp, glad that my mate would be sleeping peacefully soon enough. With an arm around Isabella's mid-section, I kept her snuggled to me, and started to lightly caress her bare arm.

I was tracing her tiny elbow with my index finger just as the first tired sigh fell from her slightly parted lips. I gently pressed my lips to her temple, getting ready to tell her to close her beautiful eyes and go to sleep, when she immediately gasped and sat straight up.

Then she smacked my leg. Hard.

And when I say hard, I mean it was hard for her…I barely felt it.

"Wha-"

"No, Edward!" Isabella suddenly yelled, cutting me off. "You _don't _hit Bella!" She twisted around in my grasp to stare me down while she continued to yell at me. "You want a spankin? I'll _show you _a spankin - don't you ever, ever, _ever _hit Bella!" she demanded, smacking my jean clad thigh again.

"Isabella, stop." I went to grab her hand, thinking that she was going to hurt herself trying to hit me the same way that my Bella had done earlier, but she pulled her arm out my reach and glared at me, making it clear that she didn't want to be touched right now.

"No, Edward! That's _bad_!" she admonished me, chancing another smack on my thigh again.

I gritted my teeth and tried my best to keep a straight face through my baby's scolding.

"That's _naughty_!" she insisted, hitting me again.

"You!" _*smack* _

"Don't! _*smack* _

"Hit!" _*smack* _

"Bella!" _*smack*_

Then she went and crossed her arms over her chest, thoroughly huffy and puffy, and obviously _very _proud of herself for dishing out my 'real spanking' for spanking my Bella earlier.

Could my day…no, could my _situation _get any weirder?

I raised my hand from where it lay on the mattress and ran it through my hair a few times, taking in the fact that she didn't flinch at the sight of my hand, and trying to figure out what to do with my angry little girl at the moment.

She knew hitting me was against the rules. But she did it to 'protect' Bella…I see where she's coming from. At the same time, I had told her that she needed to reign in her anger and work on her temper…that hitting people wasn't the answer. Also, if my Bella needs a firm hand, I will not hesitate to give it to her…Isabella needs to know and accept that.

All of her alternates do.

Looking at her now, I can see that she's not sorry for hitting me…not in the least. She feels justified. She's as still as stone, her eyes just as hard, as she continues to stare me down and almost dare me to do something about it…or, God forbid - talk back. I bet she'd 'spank' me again if I got 'sassy' right about now.

I sighed and internally chuckled at the daily insanity that I go through for my mate.

And that a five year old is ready to take me on.

_That's my girl._

* * *

**A/N:**

Wow, so I'm actually gonna let you guys help me out with this...

How should Edward handle Isabella's lil outburst? Cuz I seriously have no fuckin clue, lol.

Review and let me know your thoughts ~ Can't wait to hear from you guys!

(S'been a while, huh)

Aw, I know. I missed U too.

xoxo


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